ABSTRACT
The militarization of childhood up to and during the First World War was an observable phenomenon in all the nations involved. 1 The mass production of war toys, from mini-military uniforms for boys to dress up in as soldiers to books – “the pleasure culture of war,” as Matthew Paris calls it (2000: 8) – imbued the young “with the martial spirit and convinced them that war was natural, honourable and romantic” (82). Although Paris was writing specifically about Britain, his statement could be applied equally to other countries. Children dressed as soldiers and posed for the camera in France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States as well as England. As the Dutch journalist Rob Ruggenberg wryly comments when presenting some of these photos on his website, “Unfortunately the Great War gave many of them a chance to revert play to reality” (1994). Numerous underage soldiers from the warring nations went on to enlist and die in a war that resembled anything but the child’s play they had enacted in the nursery.
