The First Is Good Bye To All That By Frank H. Simmonds

Jack Tupler Western Civilization 4/2/2024 This paper will go over two sources from the World War I time period. The First is Good-bye To All That, an autobiography written by Robert Graves about his experience and life during the Great War. The second source is The Great War: The First Phase written by Frank H. Simmonds is a historical textbook that analyzes the early stages of the war. I will go in depth on specific parts from each book to give a more narrow view of each source. I will summarize, analyze, and evaluate both sources for a better understanding of each source. I will also compare the sources to see how they relate to each other and to see how they are different. The Chapters of Good-bye To All That I Read follow the story of Robert

He had been selected to the Royal Welch Fusiliers Regiment as a platoon leader stationed in Béthune. During the battle of the Somme he was injured and was sent to England on leave, he later retired to the regiment after he was cleared for battle. Later in the war he was ordered to move up north to Laventie with a different platoon. He struggled with his new platoon, he didn't get along with his superior officers and disagreed with the regiment's treatment of French civilians. New soldiers in his regiment were tested by going on night patrols, something Graves had never done up until that point. The chapters from The Great War: The First Phase talk about the days initially leading up to England's declaration of war on Germany. It explains how a lot of people in England didn't see the point in involving themselves in a war that in their eyes would not benefit England in any way. They had no interest in Serbia and didn't feel like they needed to join a war that had no value to them. The book talks about the main reason England ended up joining the war was that if Germany won it would upset the power balance in

Having someone who was in the war write about their experience shows you how little they knew about the big picture and how little outsiders knew about the intricacies and details of what it was like to fight there. Some of the little things the public perceived to be little might have been a huge deal to someone who experienced it first hand, but they would never know about it unless someone who was there said something about it. The chapters in The Great War: The First Phase aim to show how skeptical and hesitant Great Britain was about joining the war. This is trying to show people that the war wasn't so cut and dry with them joining the allies. As said in the book, the British didn't care all that much about Serbia being taken as it left them unaffected (Simonds, 1914, 39). I believe the author was trying to tell the audience that sometimes countries are dragged into wars that they don't fully support or believe in. A lot of the war time propaganda hypes up the idea of nationalism going to war and it gives the impression that everyone was on board from the