Remarks on Remarque

I am no war historian, hate the stuff personally, but some things about WWI really intrigue me. How horrific to have marched off to war in a Napoleonic army, white gloves, swords and Calvary still on horseback, and to have ended up fighting the modern war they ended up in! For all intents and purposes warfare in general had not changed very much at all since the war of 1812, but mid way through WWI technological advances brought mustard gas, bombing from planes, and the concept of trench warfare. Soldiers experienced traumas like no soldier ever had before and they really were ill equipped for it.

As part of my history class I have to interview a veteran who has been involved in a fire zone before, and compare/contrast their experiences with those of the characters in Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front." The choice of this assignment in the atmosphere of our current wars is quite apt, as there have been similar tactical changes that our soldiers have had to deal with "in theater" as they were as well, ill equipped to deal with the challenges that faced them.

I plan to ask an old "hippie" friend of mine who chose to enlist a few years back and did a tour in Iraq. I believe the added contrast of his former, and maybe even current, pacifism will add an even greater dimension to what I am going to try to accomplish with this paper.

There is a great podcast that I listen to called Hardcore History by someone named Dan Carlin and he did a show on this very idea, and as a matter of fact, I do believe is who first put this dramatic contrast into my head. The episode name is "Scars of the Old War" and is unfortunately not in the current line up of free episodes. I do however highly recommend paying Dan a little bit of cash so you can access the older episodes, especially if you are a history buff. He is not a historian, just a fan of history, and he asks questions I love to speculate on the answers to.