Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The war that did not end all wars
- 1 Going to war
- 2 Defining the enemy: Atrocities and propaganda 1914–1915
- 3 From spectatorship to participation; From volunteering to compulsion 1914–1916
- 4 Economies of sacrifice
- 5 Redemption through war: Religion and the languages of sacrifice
- 6 The conditional sacrifices of labour 1915–1918
- 7 Struggling to victory 1917–1918
- 8 The last war?
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Index
4 - Economies of sacrifice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The war that did not end all wars
- 1 Going to war
- 2 Defining the enemy: Atrocities and propaganda 1914–1915
- 3 From spectatorship to participation; From volunteering to compulsion 1914–1916
- 4 Economies of sacrifice
- 5 Redemption through war: Religion and the languages of sacrifice
- 6 The conditional sacrifices of labour 1915–1918
- 7 Struggling to victory 1917–1918
- 8 The last war?
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The value of blood
On All Saints' Day 1914, the vicar of Bradford preached a sermon entitled ‘Precious Blood’. His opening line betrayed a Yorkshire inflection that gives an immediacy to the published version: ‘Blood! An awful word is that. A solemn word.’ He continued: ‘A word that takes you straight to the sublime sacrifice of the Incarnate God. A word which reeks in our newspapers these days.’ On All Saints' Day, when, ‘we commemorate those who have given themselves, whether in life or in death for the Imperial cause of Christ’, then, ‘it is obviously fitting that we should think of those who during the last weeks – weeks which seem like years’, had given themselves for love of the country. The German Army had been thwarted, great things had been achieved: ‘To the noble army of Liberators we pay homage. But the moment we do so we are up against the stupendous fact … the power which achieved it was one and one only – Sacrifice.’
This was a particularly Anglican version of the universal language of wartime. The relationship between Christian rhetoric and wartime values was an intimate one. This was not accidental, and will be expanded upon later. For the moment it is the issue of this national language and local inflection which needs to be explored. If blood was the currency, how did the books balance?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Last Great WarBritish Society and the First World War, pp. 112 - 151Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008