The Great Silence

I recently read The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age by Juliet Nicolson. The book covers the impact that WWI had on British culture and society, through the stories of individuals from many different walks of life. A lot of the stories deal with changes in the status of women and the servant class, as well as threats to the Monarchy, and the importation of Jazz music from America.

Of course the overriding theme is the tremendous amount of grief that everyone had to deal with after the death or disfigurement of 100,000's of men.

The book concludes on November 11 ,1920—two years after the armistice—with the burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. Below is a film of that actual event.