Editorial: The Empire's War in History
Editorial: The Empire's War in History
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社论：帝国历史上的战争
DOI：
10.1080/00358533.2014.898504
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发表时间：
2014
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Jackson A
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文献类型：
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作者：
Jackson A
本期圆桌会议特刊纪念第一次世界大战爆发一百周年。这一点是显而易见的。但对1914-18年纪念日的执着--以及通过周年纪念镜头看待历史的更大趋势--应该谨慎看待，特别是在这一历史事件像第一次世界大战一样巨大和多方面的情况下，它的记忆令人激动和有争议。从原创的重大纪念活动，到以不体面的救护车追逐和学术、新闻和政治机会主义为特征的活动，英国和世界许多其他地区充斥着第一次世界大战。在大量与战争有关的项目中，有几个关注大英帝国和欧洲以外的军事行动，这是受欢迎的倡议，因为这仍然是一个被边缘化和被忽视的话题。其中包括BBC世界频道的系列节目《第一次世界大战：西线之外的隐藏故事》等媒体作品。然后是学术会议，例如在新加坡南洋理工大学举行的题为《大英帝国与世界大战：殖民社会/文化回应》的学术会议，以及惠灵顿大学和新西兰政府文化和遗产部的《新西兰与第一次世界大战》的学术会议。研究项目包括由伦敦国王学院的Santanu Das领导的欧洲人文研究区(HERA)资助的“全球危机时期的文化交流：第一次世界大战中的殖民地、交战者和中立者”，还有一些教育倡议，如Curzon研究所的“英联邦捐款”项目。最近的其他项目也对大英帝国战争的材料做出了贡献，比如帝国战争博物馆的《谁的纪念？两次世界大战期间英国前帝国的社区和人民的经历，以及关于战争的历史和虚构作品的有用书目。1由学者与英国电影学院和帝国战争博物馆联合建立的“殖民电影数据库”收录了大量与帝国战争有关的电影。有澳大利亚军队在埃及和印度军队在法国的镜头，重建了科罗曼德尔和福克兰群岛的海战，阿伦比将军进入耶路撒冷，特立尼达人在伦敦豪宅接受市长视察，印度军队在伦敦海德公园酒店接受检查。宣传片和新闻片包括《我们的帝国为自由而战》和切里·基尔顿(Cherry Kearton)制作的一部关于帝国军队在坦噶尼加行动的电影。它展示了东非地形的无数序列，为前线部队提供掩体的独木舟，行进中的国王非洲步枪和皇家火枪手，使用高锰酸钾伪装的马匹，以及正在行动的皇家海军空军飞机。
This special issue of The Round Table marks the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. That much is obvious. But the fixation with 1914–18 anniversaries—and a more general trend towards viewing history through anniversarial lenses—is to be regarded warily, particularly when the historical ‘event’was as huge and multifaceted as the First World War, and its memory emotive and contested. From original and significant commemorative initiatives to those characterised by unseemly ambulance-chasing and academic, journalistic and political opportunism, Britain and many other parts of the world are awash with the First World War. In among the flood of war-related projects are a few that focus on the British Empire and the military campaigns beyond Europe, welcome initiatives because this remains a marginalised and neglected topic. They include media productions such as the BBC World Service’s series ‘World War One: Hidden Stories beyond the Western Front’. There are then academic conferences, such as those held at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, entitled ‘The British Empire and the Great War: Colonial Societies/Cultural Responses’ and the University of Wellington’s and the New Zealand government Department of Culture and Heritage’s ‘New Zealand and the First World War’. Research projects include the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA)-funded ‘Cultural Exchange in the Time of Global Crisis: Colonials, Belligerents, and Neutrals in the First World War’led by Santanu Das of King’s College London, and there are also educational initiatives such as the Curzon Institute’s ‘Commonwealth Contribution’project. Other recent projects have also contributed to the material available on the British Empire’s war, such the Imperial War Museum’s ‘Whose Remembrance? Communities and the Experiences of the Peoples’ of Britain’s Former Empire during the Two World Wars’, with its useful bibliographies of historical and fictional works on the war. 1 The ‘Colonial Film Database’composed by academics in association with the British Film Institute and the Imperial War Museum contains numerous films relating to the Empire’s war. 2 There is footage of Australian troops in Egypt and Indian troops in France, a reconstruction of the naval battles of Coromandel and the Falklands, General Allenby’s entry into Jerusalem, Trinidadians being inspected by the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, London, and Indian troops at the Hyde Park Hotel, London. Propaganda films and newsreels include ‘Our Empire’s Fight for Freedom’and a film made by Cherry Kearton (known for his African wildlife films) about the operations of imperial forces in Tanganyika. It shows numerous sequences of the East African terrain, dugout canoes supplying front-line units, men of the King’s African Rifles and Royal Fusiliers on the march, horses being camouflaged using potassium permanganate, and Royal Naval Air Service aircraft in action.