“Backing Up The Government”:

Women Doctors, Sex Education, and Eugenics during WWI

Lizzie Evens

 

Following US entry to WWI, men left their hometowns to travel to military bases, where they underwent a series of medical tests, including for gonorrhoea and syphilis. The results shocked military and political leaders. For them, the high incidence of venereal disease represented a serious threat to the nation’s military might. The federal government responded with a crackdown on vice via the newly formed Committee of Training Camp Activities (CTCA). But the fact that many new recruits were infected

Simon Mackley
Cross-posted from the Imperial & Global Forum 3/2/2014
Michael Gove’s recent assault, in the form of an article in the Daily Mail, alleges that the myths of the First World War continue to be perpetuated by an unholy alliance of left-wing academics and television sit-coms. The Education Secretary accused his ideological opponents of failing to recognise that the conflict was a ‘just war’, fought in defence of ‘Britain’s special tradition of liberty’. Since the piece went to press, the myriad problems inherent in Gove’s characterisation have been dissected at great length –

Fighting the Myths of the First World War

Marc-William Palen Blog Post

Marc-William Palen
Lecturer in Imperial History, University of Exeter; Editor, Imperial & Global Forum

Cross-posted from the Imperial & Global Forum, 6/1/2014

Did you miss this weekend's intellectual battle over the myths of the First World War? Here are the highlights.

Round 1, Gove v. Evans

Late last week, Education Secretary Michael Gove fired off the year’s opening salvo in the pages of the Daily Mail in ‘Why Does the Left Insist on Belittling True British Heroes?’ As the title suggests (and now with support from Stephen Pollard in the Express and UKIP's Nigel Farage in the Independent), Gove