Empires of the Dead: How One Man’s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI’s War Graves by David Crane


Empires of the Dead: How One Man’s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI’s War Graves
Kindle Empires of the Dead: How One Man’s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI’s War Graves
By David Crane
ISBN 0007456654
ISBN-13 9780007456659
Publication 24 February 2025
Number of Pages 304
Format Type Hardcover
Awards Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction (2013), Hessell-Tiltman Prize (2014)

Empires of the deadzone mods The book also explains the story behind the huge stone memorials usually situated on a hill or ridge that commemorated the many thousands who were lost and had no marked grave I visited the Thiepval monument last autumn and we could see it for miles as we drove towards it absolutely the point of course. Book of the dead win I ve read numerous books about the Great War but this taught me something new on every page Poignant and very well written recommended 304 Visitors to Commonwealth War Graves are always moved by the eloquence with which these gardens of the dead convey to the living their profound message of sacrifice and sorrow It is difficult to imagine how better to convey the tragedy of war in our time It is therefore startling to realize how recent such things are.

Empires of the deadout

An interesting read about an outcome of WWI and the history behind it 304 I acknowledge my bias Sir Arthur Fabian Goulstone Ware is my second cousin 3x removed Of course this is why I picked up the book but long before I knew this fact I was fascinated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as I am with other vast websites that aid seekers to uncover the stories of their personal past So I enjoyed the read and the clues it gives to my own historical links with the Plymouth Brethren despite the tendency of the author to get swept up in his story and be a little difficult to follow at times 304 The subtitle of the book indicates that it should be about the role of Fabian Ware in creating the Imperial War Graves Commission which undertook the massive task after the First World War of creating the many cemeteries both in France and Belgium and on a lesser scale across the globe of the war dead of the United Kingdom and colonial and Dominion countries that sent troops to serve in Britain s war The book isn t really a complete treatment of Ware whose early role is laid out in some detail but who sort of fades out in the later portion of the book which deals with the actual designing and establishment of the cemeteries along with the attendant controversies I think a major problem with the book is a breakdown in its overall conception It isn t about Ware himself though he is a major focus in the beginning or about the commission and its task though the latter part does focus in an unfocused way on that topic I m not sure what exactly the book s focus is and I don t think the author does either Particularly in its later pages the book becomes a sort of Impressionistic story cum evaluation of the commission s actions in laying out those cemeteries. Empire of the dead miniatures It has to be said that the author has little sympathy with Ware s personal ideology which was the Victorian dream historical dead end of welding the Dominions into a cohesive world empire under the guidance of the Mother Country As part of this vision Ware who had been an influential newspaper editor during the Edwardian period but had lost his way in the immediate pre war years after being fired formed an informal ambulance corps out of vehicles provided for that purpose by various rich people This organization became involved in dealing with the many often poorly attended to dead servicemen who littered northern France and eventually Ware converted his unofficial ambulance service into an officially recognized organization for preserving the details of the remains of the detritus of the war both immediately to help the bereaved find out about the disposition of the corpses of their beloved and in the future to make use of those remains as a sort of symbolic memorial to the unity and comradeship of the Dominions via their common sacrifice A major theme in the development of the cemeteries was the determination of the commission to give all the dead a common variety of commemoration in the myriad cemeteries that sprang up in their multitude across the plains of northern Europe and elsewhere like Gallipoli This met with a fair amount of opposition from those back home who would have preferred to commemorate their dead after their own inclinations The author makes clear his hostility to the society that exacted this sacrifice and the Imperial ideology that lay behind it There is no doubting the emotional power that is inherent in the parliamentary debate about the commission s remit and in the mere description of the massive monuments designed by the likes of Lutyens and Baker I found a lot of the later parts of the book emotionally draining but only because of the very nature of the content and the words of the participants themselves not the commentary of the author himself This is very much an Englishman s book with a lot of allusive reference to British things that may well be less than obvious to a non Brit. Empires of the deadripper The meaningless title of the book gives some indication of its lack of overall focus Is it about the philosophy of the commission s work An analysis of the thinking of the commission members that led them to come up with their conception The debate about their conception and the disputes over its implementation Is it about the role of Ware specifically or about the commission in general None of this is really worked out and the overall effect is a rather disjointed I would guess that it s meant to be a sort of general rumination of all of this and certainly not a comprehensive history of the commission and its works The book has a number of missions and it s not particularly satisfying at any of them 304 Having visited many of the cemeteries and memorials mentioned in this book I found this it to be of great interest because it explained how Britain undertook to remember those who were lost in the Great War Unfortunately that war led to another war and even graves 304 3. Empire of the dead comic Easy to read No prior knowledge of the time period needed Covers topics from the beginning of grave locations being recorded how they were recorded during the war and what was done after the war Also covers the various architectural debates over how Britain s and its empire overseas cemetaries and memorials would be designed and the political debates around it Quite biographical as well as it follows one man Fabian Ware who was a mix of social campaigner reformist and rightwing imperialist zealot who was involved in the grave recording from the beginning of the war and was one of the main lobbyists for a Imperial War Graves Commision Worth reading imo if the time period interests you 304 Empires of the Dead: How One Man’s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI’s War GravesDavid Crane read history and English at Oxford University before becoming a lecturer at universities in the Netherlands Japan and Africa He is the acclaimed biographer of Scott of the Antarctic and of Edward Trelawny companion of Byron and Shelley He also wrote The Kindness Of Sisters an account of the relationship between Byrons widow and his sister in law who bore his child His book Empires Of The Dead about Fabian Ware and the building of the First World War cemeteries was shortlisted for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for non fiction. Empires of the deadn netflix He lives in northwest Scotland There is than one author by the name David Crane on Goodreads site_link David Crane Video Game Designer site_link David Crane Screenplays David Crane read history and English at Oxford University before becoming a lecturer at universities in the Netherlands Japan and Africa He is the acclaimed biographer of Scott of the Antarctic and of Edward Trelawny companion of Byron and Shelley He also wrote The Kindness Of Sisters an account of the relationship between Byron s widow and his sister in law who bore his child His book Empires Of The Dead about Fabian Ware and the building of the First World War cemeteries was shortlisted for the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for non fiction. Empire of the dead miniatures He lives in northwest Scotland There is than one author by the name David Crane on Goodreads site_link David Crane Video Game Designer site_link David Crane Screenplays site_link Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize for non fiction the extraordinary and forgotten story behind the building of the First World War cemeteries due to the efforts of one remarkable and visionary man Fabian Ware. Empire of the dead read online The great cemeteries of WWI came about as a result of the efforts of one inspired visionary In 1914 Fabian Ware joined the Red Cross working on the frontline in France Horrified by the hasty burials he recorded the identity and position of the graves His work was officially recognised with a Graves Registration Commission being set up As reports of their work became public the Commission was flooded with letters from grieving relatives around the world. Empires of the deadnought Critically acclaimed author David Crane gives a profoundly moving account of the creation of the great citadels to the dead which involved leading figures of the day including Rudyard Kipling It is the story of cynical politicking as governments sought to justify the sacrifice as well as the grief of nations following the war to end all wars Empires of the Dead How One Man s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI s War Gravesa fascinating finely wrought account essential reading for anyone interested in the afterlives of the great war dead and yes i did predictably cry several times whilst reading it 304 4. Empire of the dead paris I have visited many of these cemeteries in Northern France and Belgium and on entering them I have always been struck by the uniform rows of headstones laid out in soldierly rows each headstone identical in appearance apart from the personal details inscribed on it. Empire of the dead book I had absolutely no idea about the story behind how and why these war cemeteries look the uniform way they do Or indeed the arguments and protests from bereaved families who often wanted to bring their sons home for burial or put up their own individual memorials in France From an early date it was decided that the cemeteries carefully tended will rely for their effect on the dignity of their layout and the beauty of the trees how different from the practices of other countries how much they were the product of the energy imagination and determination of one man Sir Fabian Ware. Empires of the deady pdf In his book Empires of the Dead David Crane tells the story of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission with fresh insight into how the ideas and values of religion imperialism democracy memory art and architecture the family and the nation intersected clashed and harmonized in the creation of these memorials to the fallen. Empires of the deadview Ware was a disciple of Lord Milner whose dream was to unite the British Empire in a great democratic federation that would bring peace and civilization to the world Individuals would freely serve the great ideals for which the empire stood ideals that demanded devotion and sacrifice and got them in spades in the titanic struggle for civilization that was the Great War They are exemplified in the cemeteries which are democratic officers and men have identical grave markers imperial the white Dominions all agreed to participate in the project inclusive Christians Jews Muslims and Hindus are all honoured in an architecture which has religious overtones but is not particular to any religion and noble the finest architects in Britain designed the cemeteries and the best poetic minds composed the memorial phrases and decided how to commemorate those who had no known graves. Empire of the dead guts and blackpowder Against such a grand vision opposition must seem petty today Yet most of us confronted with the same issues today might well have opposed this grand scheme and Crane sympathetically recounts opposing views Why could not those who could afford it design their own memorials Why could not men be repatriated to rest in country churchyards or family plots Why were there no crosses Why do the cemeteries appear to glorify war by making the mud and waste of the trenches into scenes of pastoral beauty Were those who had been conscripted in life also to be regimented in death Were the families that lost their sons to the army also to lose them to this grand vision A Canadian is constrained to note as well that while many British families could visit the war graves in Europe few people from the overseas Dominions would ever see the resting places of their loved ones. Empire of the sky anno 1800 It all makes fascinating reading and those who find peace and exaltation in these magnificent creations can through this book also see the anguish and conflict the great ideas and clashing visions that lie behind this achievement This is the best kind of history 304 The British First World War cemeteries in France and Belgium seem so inevitable now from the distance of a hundred years so natural row after row of identical white headstones serried ranks all facing East towards the enemy as they died all equal in death no grand monuments to the elevated in rank or title There is something tremendously beautiful about those cemeteries a poignancy and a peace that seems very much at odds with how they died Most cemeteries evoke nothing than an English country garden with green lawns shading trees and herbaceous borders There is one in Ypres the Ramparts Cemetery which could literally be a country garden with a sloping lawn down to a pond willow trees flowers Somehow the headstones seem to fit. Empires of the deadui review This was all deliberate of course and all the work of the then Imperial War Graves Commission and its chief Fabian Ware Ware started out in France as the head of a Red Cross Ambulance Unit and as much as recovering live soldiers his work inevitably involved locating and marking the graves of those they could not save As it would be wont to on the Western Front the work escalated and eventually it became a full time role. Empire of the dead paris bookpedia The First World War cemeteries are so much a part of our cultural memory of the war so much a part of its iconography that it is easy to forget just how much resistance there was to the concept at all Many bereaved relatives were dismayed and horrified to learn that they could not bring their loved ones bodies home that they could not pay for grand monuments or tombs that just as they had to sacrifice their sons and brothers and husbands and fathers to the nation in life they must now do so also in death. Empires of the deadripper It is testament to Fabian Ware and then now Commonwealth War Graves Commission that they overcame this resistance and the legacy we see now a hundred years on The Cenotaph the Menin Gates the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior Tyne Cot all a result of the vision of one man It is hard to imagine remembering the Great War without these visual reminders The real genius is how they manage to simultaneously convey the sheer staggering scale of the dead whilst also preserving something of equality and individuality 304 MEH Crane does a lot of primary source quoting so his commentary is cut up by uninspiring material Never quite grasped Ware s importance but he Ware not Crane lost me when I learned that a Ware saw the War Graves as an imperial mission and b didn t like the idea of the Unknown Soldier tomb in Westminster Abbey one of the most moving sites I ve ever visited Definitely could ve been a engaging smoothly written account 304

Empires of the Dead: How One Man’s Vision Led to the Creation of WWI’s War Graves By David Crane
0007456654
9780007456659
English
304
Hardcover
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Grass and flowers I don t have any argument with that almost 100 years later their impact is as strong as ever. Empires of the deady york 75 5 260 pages of text plus 30 pages of notes bibliography and index, Empire of the sun singer dead reddit Before WWI little provision was made for the burial of the war dead Soldiers were often unceremoniously dumped in a mass grave officers shipped home for burial: Empires of the dead book 5This was a fascinating account of the story behind the building of the British and Commonwealth war cemeteries following the War to end all Wars