Changes Of Britain Nationalism In The Early Post The First World War

The First World War is one of the major turning points in the history of British national identification. The conception of national community initially rose among British society since ancient time. It has evolved for centuries and then gradually stabilized. It is the WWI and its aftermath that triggered the significant shift in the development of the British nationalism. Although state authority seek to strengthen nationalistic identification by all means during wartime, the disastrous aftermath of the total war and the rising modern democratic thoughts prompted the public to question the idea of "national community" in official propaganda, which was evident in early postwar memorials.It is during the initial stage of post-WWI period that the mourning of the dead was eventually acknowledged as the keynote of the memorial activities in Britain, while simplification was regarded as the feature of war memorial. Both of the two factors were gradually formed through wide-ranging discussion among post-WWI British society rather than accomplished in one action. Divergences around the idea&form of war memorial emerged among state authority, organizations and individuals, indicating the diversified consciousness of British national community in post war era. As one of the mainstream media at that time, the Times could be regarded as an evident indicator of the WWI memorial and its transition in Britain.After explaining the theory of social memory and important relevant conceptions such as social memory, memorial ritual and war memorial, this thesis will review British nationalism as one of the vital ideological cores of WWI memorial as well as the war memorial rituals as the carrier of social memory, especially how did the war memorial rituals reflect the transition of the national identification.