De la mémoire à la guerre des humbles trois livres récents avant d’aller plus loin

Abstract

The centennial of the First World War was the occasion for the publication of many works that are a reflection of recent historiographical trends, namely the problems of commemorations and representations, and other problems of cultural history, as humor, within the background of the growing popularity of personal memoirs and letters of more or less anonymous individuals. This is also the case in Quebec. Three books under review, first appreciated individually, especially from the point of view of the sources used, are then placed in the context of this historiography. Finally, with an availability of sources that have become truly exceptional, it is considered appropriate to return to some old questionings, such as conscription and volunteering or the difficult problem of endurance to the sufferings of trench warfare, or relations between soldiers and their families left behind.