US History: Over There

This past week or so, we have been going through World War I.

I decided to keep the focus on three main facets:

1. the alliances and entanglements that led to the war

2. the advances in technology that made this war so bloody

3. the ultimate futility of the war and the desire for retribution.

OK, we also looked at the involvement on the homefront. After viewing 50+ WWI posters, I had the kids make their own! I asked them to make them one of three kinds: enlistment, war bonds, or food production. Here Klenda does her take on food production.

Back to our scheduled topics: You wouldn't think the byzantine politics at the root of the Great War could be made clear, let alone funny, but here it is:


The technology side of things really made the war what it was: poison gas, machine guns, tanks, barbed wire and airplanes. It surprised me to find that, at the beginning, everyone thought the war would take 2 to 4 months. I asked my dad about it and he pointed out that, before this level of technology, most wars were pretty short (not counting civil wars). Moreover, most battles within an individual war took a few hours, up to a day. The Battle of the Somme alone took months.

My parents visited Verdun a few years before I was born, more than50 years after that battle had ended. They said you could still see the craters overlapping craters and bayonets and helmets scattered about. My dad picked up a belt buckle that was embedded with shrapnel.

The most interesting part of that trip, I heard from my mom. They had been driving along the battlefield when my dad stopped the car and they walked around a low hill. It was a crumbling underground command center, a warren of rooms extending two levels down with space for horses! She wasn't sure how my dad knew it was there, but remembered thinking at the time that if it collapsed on them, they were unlikely to ever be found...

We finished up our study on the War to End All Wars, with a Memorial Day visit to Arlington. Actually, we visit Arlington every Memorial Day because the Emperor's dad and grandparents are there (veterans of WWII and WWI). His family keeps up the lovely custom of decorating the graves of all our family on Memorial Day.