Discussion Questions
February 17, 2009

  1. You need to pick one letter from tonight's readings for class discussion.   What would it be, and why?
  2. How do the letters extend our understanding of the home front experience generally and the female experience specifically?   In answering this, pick out details which you think are particularly unique, insightful, etc. from the letters for discussion.
  3. Are there any particular assets or liabilities in using letters as a source which we as historians should be aware of?
  4. Propaganda plays on emotions, fears, etc. in order to be effective.  Keeping this in mind, how effective would Win the War Suggestions have been as propaganda?  What were the tactics and/or arguments used?
  5. What does the Win the War Suggestions tell us about a) contemporary perceptions of women and their roles; b) contemporary perceptions of Canadian society; c) homefront life; d) gender roles and relations.  Are there similarities and/or differences between the viewpoints of Win the War Suggestions and the Globe editorial of February 4, 1918?
  6. Women were an integral part of the propaganda program of each country.  In looking at Women: Myth, Symbol, and Reality, what were the various roles in which women were cast?  What reaction, emotional or otherwise, was each poster designed to elicit?  Are there common themes which tie together the posters?  Which single poster did you find to be the most powerful, and why?
  7. What is the "myth of the war experience" to which Darrow refers?
  8. According to Darrow, why has the French female war experience, specifically that of nurses, seemed to have disappeared from national memory?
  9. According to Darrow, "...the memoirs of wartime nurses are unconvincing either as literature or as historical records."  What does she mean and why is this so?
  10. If Darrow is correct, what are the implications for historians understanding WWI?  Is this a specific French problem, or is this a problem of all nations at war? 
  11. Is the Globe correct in its statement that by 1918 the war hade done much to remove class distinctions and barriers?  What specific evidence so far from this course could you use to argue the affirmative?  To argue the negative?