Writing a War of Words is the first exploration of the war-time
quest by Andrew Clark - a writer, historian, and volunteer on the
first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary - to document
changes in the English language from the start of the First World
War up to 1919. Clark's unique series of lexical scrapbooks,
replete with clippings, annotations, and real-time definitions,
reveals a desire to put living language history to the fore, and to
create a record of often fleeting popular use. The rise of trench
warfare, the Zeppelinophobia of total war, and descriptions of
shellshock (and raid shock on the Home Front) all drew his
attentive gaze. The archive includes examples from a range of
sources, such as advertising, newspapers, and letters from the
Front, as well as documenting social issues such as the shifting
forms of representation as women 'did their bit' on the Home Front.
Lynda's Mugglestone's fascinating investigation of this valuable
archive reassesses the conventional accounts of language history
during this period, recuperates Clark himself as another 'forgotten
lexicographer', challenges the received wisdom on the
inexpressibilities of war, and examines the role of language as an
interdisciplinary lens on history.
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