Pennell again.

In the UK, most people still believe that the summer of 1914 was a golden age, shattered by an unexpected conflict, and that British soldiers on the Western Front were led by incompetent generals, whose sole purpose was to sadistically send them to their death...... Academic scholarship, however prolific, has failed to penetrate popular minds on this topic.
These issues must be addressed in advance of the centenary period of 2014 – 2018. With no more surviving 'Tommies', and a declining number of Second World War veterans, a growing distance from the past is at risk of being filled with yet more myth-making. This paper will seek to explore the chronology of popular memory and the First World War from 1918 to the present day, with particular focus on the post-Second World War period. It will then raise a number of issues for discussion regarding the role of historians in the commemorative process. Are we to wade in with our size 12 feet, shaking our finger, and pointing to the foolish errors made by the general public on a topic that we know in such intricate detail? Are we to chastise and correct? If so, how can we do this in a way that does not alienate historical research from a public audience? Or should historians stand back from commemorative processes and attempt to ignore the trite that may appear?