The First World War was the first global event. A total war, it changed the lives of millions in Europe and its colonial territories. It was the paradigm of the wars of the 20th century and a crossroad in world-history, shaped modern experiences and the forms of representation and memory which we call "modern". The massive encounter with death and new technologies of destruction engendered, or speeded up, changes in states, society and the economy, in class and in gender relations, and brought on new forms of reflexivity and identity. 
The seminar will examine the experience of the front and home-front and their representations in autobiographies and memoires (by officers, common soldiers and military nurses), the war's impact on daily life (from diet and eating to work and leisure), the relationship between individuals and the state as well as between individuals and the nation. We shall consider forms of commemoration and mourning shaped up by the war, and modern memory. We shall make extensive use of a variety of sources: private, public and official, literary, visual (films and photography) and material remains of the war in museums and war excavations.