The Conversation

Friday essay: the Battle of the Somme and the death of martial glory

Author: Matthew Sharpe, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin University

At exactly 7:30 in the morning, 100 years ago today, thousands of British soldiers went “over the top” towards enemy lines in the lowlands surrounding the French river Somme.

They didn’t run forwards up the slopes towards the German trenches when the whistles broke the morning silence. The generals had calculated that, with each...

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