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SUMMARY:TBC - Justin Fantauzzo
DTSTART:20110614T163000Z
DTEND:20110614T180000Z
UID:TALK31440@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Christian Schlaepfer
DESCRIPTION:Fought over the shifting sands of Egypt\, the barren land of t
 he Sinai\, and the rolling mountainsides of the Judean Hills\, the Palesti
 ne Campaign of the First World War produced a markedly different war exper
 ience for over a half million British combatants. Despite the allure that 
 the Palestine Campaign seemed to possess - Christian British troops engage
 d in\, as many had labeled it\, a "new Crusade" against the Ottoman Empire
  in the Holy Land - public attention and support for the campaign at home 
 was initially minimal and frequently negative. Guided by the misconception
  that the Turk was an inferior soldier and that a satisfactory conclusion 
 to the war could only be realized through the maximum concentration of the
  Empire's resources in Europe\, British politicians and the public pushed 
 the Palestine campaign deep into the nation's psychological background. It
  was not until the arrival of General Edmund Allenby in June 1917\, and th
 e capture of Jerusalem later that year that the home front started receivi
 ng regular press coverage of the Palestine Campaign. Fighting in a periphe
 ral theatre of war with minimal press coverage\, how then\, did British so
 ldiers justify their war experience and feel about their contribution to t
 he British war effort? What was the perceptive meaning of the Western Fron
 t as a 'different type of war'? How was the Palestine Campaign's public pr
 ofile communicated to soldiers and subsequently\, what did they think the 
 British public knew of the campaign? By separating the wartime writings of
  British soldiers serving in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force from postwar
  recollections and published diaries\, a creative reconstruction of the ca
 mpaign's activeness and importance emerges. Whereas contemporary soldiers'
  writing stressed an intense desire for greater home leave and stronger co
 ntact with their friends and loved ones in Britain\, postwar literature fo
 cuses on the military successes of the campaign and the soldiers' associat
 ion with their 'heroic' leader\, General Allenby. The answers to these imp
 ortant questions may very well come out of the sands of Palestine.
LOCATION:Nihon Room\, Foundress Court\, Pembroke College
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