Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines various aspects of the cultural heritage of the Great War through assessing the language, imagery and metaphor used in the framing of the remembrance of the conflict. It addresses how the Great War remains current within British society by assessing the views from the past as frames which are mobilised for current concerns. The book also examines the wider usage of the cultural heritage of the Great War by assessing the manner in which it informs issues of identity, politics and place through museums, memorials and memory. The popular memory of the Great War in Britain has been undermined for venerating myths of the war and obscuring the historical truths. The book assesses how the view from the trenches has served to construct a particular means by which the memory of the war has been mobilised.