Then upon her death left. It was opened as a Public Museum in 1963. We are now more than 50 years as an institution in washington, d. C. It is good to see all of you here tonight. Our program is entitled smile while you kiss me sad adieu. World war i songs. Let me introduce our speaker quickly. We like to remind people here that president wilson imagines a world at peace and proposed a plan to achieve that vision. That is a remarkable accomplishment when we take about it from the Vantage Point of our lives 100 years later. It is more remarkable if we transport ourselves back to his time and think about the world in which he lived and the ideas that were abroad at the time and the remarkable accomplishment that it was for him in the middle of a world war to imagine what the world ought to look like at peace and propose that that should be our default position, that there ought to be a league of nations and nations ought not to engage in aggressive war. This house allows us to take that
And im not being snotty. It was a different kind of war. The people were not engaged by it. In vietnam, you had some songs, but theyre songs in which two groups are warring with one another. Give peace a chance, and whats the im an oaky from ma skokie. Iraq and afghanistan dont produce a lot of songs. Again, because in a way they were invisible, and in a way, we know about them, were not as a nation engaged in it. We dont have a citizen army anymore. That gets in the way of that. So in world war i, you have a mix. Really, in the middle between the two wars, and it shows. There were songs about mom, and there were songs about sweetie. Soldiers singing im going to pin the medal on the girl i left behind, in world war i. There are other differences between world war i and world war ii, love songs that ill save for a few minutes. But its the mother song that i want to get to. Again, its the idea of staying out of it, delivering a kind of anthem, in the way that the first song is an anthem,
In that those who didnt participate, meaning the civilians left at home, especially in the u. S. Where the war didnt come here, so the civilians didnt have a context of this ultimate suffering that the soldiers went through. And so to the people at home who were waiting for their men to come home, they came back. It was a sensationalism in the sense that you guys were heros in the war. Now lets get on with our lives because ive been waiting for you. And i think that that idea of civilians wait iing, it kind of steam rolls soldier memory. The soldiers arent waiting in the same sense that the civilians are. Their experiences are, oh, great, lets move on. Save that title. Steam roller of memory. Someone else had a hand up. Pete . I think i think it says that because at least this is one what im thinking. In world war i, theres nothing sensational about american involvement. You would think americans were god on earth in world war i for saving everyone. In the context of the larger story o
Tv and sunday on American History tv on cspan3. He discussed how song writers contributed to the war effort by writing patriotic music. This is an hour and 15 minutes. Good evening to all of you. Im bob enholm, the executive director of the Woodrow Wilson house. Were a private charity supported by donations of supporters, including many of you. For that i thank you. Thanks for being here this evening. This home is the home to which president and mrs. Wilson moved the very day they left the white house, on march 4 in 1921. They both lived here the rest their lives. Wilson passed away three years later. Mrs. Wilson lived here until 1961. Then upon her death, left the home to the National Trust for historical preservation. It was opened as a Public Museum in 1963. We are now more than 50 years as an institution here in washington, d. C. Its good to see all of you here tonight. Our program is smile while you kiss me sad adieu, world war i songs. Let me set the stage and introduce or speake
Disillusioned pessimists. We have created a polarity here between militaryists and disillusioned pessimists. Most of us dont fit in with that. Were in between. Right . He says soldiers were not disenchanted by the war. The war never offered them an enchanting prospect. They were just fed up. He had not wanted war. But he engaged in it. He liked it less than he expected. But he proposed to see it through. If which god forbid similar circumstances arose in 1929, he would do it again. There are no Great Expectations of going into the trenches. No one naively look at the war and thought this is going to be a good time. When they got there, it was pretty terrible. Then he gives us this striking, striking statement of how this doesnt fit in with what hemingway was saying. He says the greater the haorror of battle, the nobler of the man who is not morally ruined by it. If i was a minister and i said that from a pulpit, you would be scared. Right . Natalie. I kind of have a little bit of a pro