The Magazine War Hero: First World War Stories about Heroic Exploits

Whereas professional soldiers before 1914 had had a somewhat mixed reputation in Britain – one only has to look at Kipling’s ‘Ballad of Tommy Atkins’ – to imagine how the First World War changed how soldiers were perceived at home. Since so many sons, brothers, husbands and friends went to war, the anxious British public needed new, more reassuring ways of thinking about soldiering, and the image of the modern-day war hero was promoted by the state as a morale-booster and by everyday men and women whose loved ones were at the front as a way of paying respect to those at the front.

This talk by Northumbria University lecturer Ann-Marie Einhaus looks beyond official newspaper reports and accolades for war heroes, at the depiction of heroic exploits in fiction, especially collections of stories and popular magazines.

This talk links in with the exhibition 'Home of Heroes' that's currently on display at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery.

Students (With ID) go free to this event.