The Effect of World War One on People at Home

The Effect of World War One on People at Home

The people at home lives were affected in a wide variety of ways

during the First World War. Some people's lives were altered for the

good, where as some were altered for the bad.

During the First World War, a lot of people were needed in the army.

This meant that volunteers were required by their many hundreds. To

influence this, propaganda was used in the forms of pamphlets,

posters, newspapers and by word of mouth. The source A1 (i) was a

poster used for propaganda to make men volunteer for the army. About

54 million similar posters were created, but this was one of the most

famous. It shows Lord Kitchener, who was an upper class member of the

government and was renowned for being a brave war hero. They used this

picture of him because he was respected by so many across the country

and so it shows deference because at least 2 million signed up to the

army by 1916.

Source A1 (ii) also shows a picture from a newspaper and was used as a

form of recruitment. This source shows how many men were signing up

for the army. Although it looks phoney, it isn't. The picture was

manipulated so that all the men were smiling, even though they knew

how terrible war really was, as the war had started over 16 months

previously. The picture also shows different classes of men, some from

the working class and others from the middle class. The different

classes are shown to us by the different hats being worn by the men.

This shows that the classes were coming together to help with the war

effort and showing true patriotism. This type of "spun" image was okay

in a censored newspaper, because it lifte...

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...d have done accurate research. Also, because it was

written so many years after the war, the relatives of people who died

in the war are not alive any more to argue that it was a bad thing

because their families died etc.

In a way, the First World War did have positive changes because, as

shown in source D3, women were allowed to vote and ergo lead a more

respected life. There were a lot less people in domestic services

because they knew that better wages could be earned in other jobs. The

person who wrote this was probably a working-class person as they

speak about the working-class in a nice manner.

Although these changes happened and people were proud of their men

that had fought this war, the celebration and change did not last

forever. The Second World War had a deeper and longer term effect on

the people.