Proof through the Night: Music and the Great War (Includes CD)

Rating:
Summary: A Six Star (******) Triumph of Cultural History
Review: There was a period a few years ago when bestseller lists contained more than an occasional book on the First World War. For example, the John Keegan book was a concise military history recounting the politics and battlefield actions of the war. Niall Ferguson's "The Pity of War" set out to explain WWI and offers an iconoclastic view that attempts to show how it was not inevitable. What these and the others really do lack is a sense of the cultures that were torn apart, reshaped and died.

As I was reading "Proof Through The Night" I was shocked how vividly Professor Watkins evokes the cultural issues of the times leading up to the War, the convulsions during the War, and the cultural memory and recounting of these events that echo even today. Most of us know little of that time and we don't understand the roots of present issues. We see the surfaces and strange interactions. We see artifacts from the past, but do not understand their context and react all too anachronistically to them. While we are entitled to reinterpret the past and use what we will and how we wish to use it, there is so much to be gained by at least making an attempt to come to terms with what those who lived meant to say to each other and to us by inheritance. We cheat ourselves of our patrimony by only shallowly understanding the culture of a time.

Professor Watkins surveys cultural issues that were active in Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany - Austria, and the U. S. neighboring to the war years. He does this by demonstrating what was happening in painting, sculpture, drama, popular culture, and above all, music. He takes us deep inside a few pieces such as Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin"(particularly the Toccata), certain paintings of Otto Dix and the music of Hindemith to the work of Matthias Gruenewald, and Britten's "War Requiem" to the resolution and memory of the Great War even in 1961.

There is so much in this wonderful book that I cannot even begin to list more than a few incidental points. I really do want you to get a copy and immerse yourself in it. Professor Watkins has provided us with so much that I found I had to take my time and read other things to get more background to get full enjoyment from this treasure.

There is a CD that contains 17 tracks of some of the most important pieces he refers to in the book. They are chosen well and you will never hear them the same after reading the deep context this book provides. There are also many wonderful pictures and illustrations in the book. The only wish I have is that at least some of them could have been in color. But you know how it is with "academic" books.

There are also many pages of footnotes (endnotes). Nowadays most footnotes are simply citations of references. Not here. There is a great deal of valuable and enlightening information on these pages and I encourage you to read them.

This book should not be ignored. I believe reading about the culture and the wrenching changes during and after the War will actually tell you more about your life today and its connection to that time than a shelf full of books on battlefield struggles, troop movements, and weapons development. It isn't the usual way to read about War, but it is terrific.

Everyone - at least everyone who cares about WWI- should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Six Star (******) Triumph of Cultural History
Review: There was a period a few years ago when bestseller lists contained more than an occasional book on the First World War. For example, the John Keegan book was a concise military history recounting the politics and battlefield actions of the war. Niall Ferguson's "The Pity of War" set out to explain WWI and offers an iconoclastic view that attempts to show how it was not inevitable. What these and the others really do lack is a sense of the cultures that were torn apart, reshaped and died.

As I was reading "Proof Through The Night" I was shocked how vividly Professor Watkins evokes the cultural issues of the times leading up to the War, the convulsions during the War, and the cultural memory and recounting of these events that echo even today. Most of us know little of that time and we don't understand the roots of present issues. We see the surfaces and strange interactions. We see artifacts from the past, but do not understand their context and react all too anachronistically to them. While we are entitled to reinterpret the past and use what we will and how we wish to use it, there is so much to be gained by at least making an attempt to come to terms with what those who lived meant to say to each other and to us by inheritance. We cheat ourselves of our patrimony by only shallowly understanding the culture of a time.

Professor Watkins surveys cultural issues that were active in Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany - Austria, and the U. S. neighboring to the war years. He does this by demonstrating what was happening in painting, sculpture, drama, popular culture, and above all, music. He takes us deep inside a few pieces such as Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin"(particularly the Toccata), certain paintings of Otto Dix and the music of Hindemith to the work of Matthias Gruenewald, and Britten's "War Requiem" to the resolution and memory of the Great War even in 1961.

There is so much in this wonderful book that I cannot even begin to list more than a few incidental points. I really do want you to get a copy and immerse yourself in it. Professor Watkins has provided us with so much that I found I had to take my time and read other things to get more background to get full enjoyment from this treasure.

There is a CD that contains 17 tracks of some of the most important pieces he refers to in the book. They are chosen well and you will never hear them the same after reading the deep context this book provides. There are also many wonderful pictures and illustrations in the book. The only wish I have is that at least some of them could have been in color. But you know how it is with "academic" books.

There are also many pages of footnotes (endnotes). Nowadays most footnotes are simply citations of references. Not here. There is a great deal of valuable and enlightening information on these pages and I encourage you to read them.

This book should not be ignored. I believe reading about the culture and the wrenching changes during and after the War will actually tell you more about your life today and its connection to that time than a shelf full of books on battlefield struggles, troop movements, and weapons development. It isn't the usual way to read about War, but it is terrific.

Everyone - at least everyone who cares about WWI- should read this book.