Oh What a Lovely War

What happens when three historians watch a key play about the First World War?

This month we took a field trip to see Oh What A Lovely War at the Leeds Playhouse. As a result we discuss the nature of the performance, the changing image of Douglas Haig, and wonder whether audiences were supposed to sing along.

References

Alan Clark, The Donkeys (1961)
John McCrae, In Flanders Field (1915)
William Phillpot, Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme and the Making of the Twentieth Century (2010)
Dan Todman, The Great War in Myth and Memory (2005)
Oh! What a lovely war (Original London Cast) (1983)

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Professor of Modern British History at Leeds University. My research interests lie at the intersection of the histories of gender, particularly masculinity, medicine and warfare.

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A historian focusing on the First World War and popular representations of warfare. I received my PhD from the University of Sussex in 2013. My thesis examined relations between British and French soldiers during the First World War.

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Is a Visiting Research Fellow at Leeds University. My current research focuses on manpower and authority in Britain, starting with the First World War and running through until the end of the Second World War.