They say history is written by the victors.

That’s why a Huddersfield University history expert has joined an international think tank examining the politics behind the historians of World War One (WWI).

Dr Andrew Mycock, a reader in history and politics, will be examining how politics and attitudes of the day can influence how history is recorded.

He will be working alongside experts in history and politics from the UK, the former Yugoslavia and Australia.

Dr Mycock said: “History is always about the present. The debates taking place about the First World War have very little to do with what actually happened during the conflict. They are very much to do with what is happening now.”

The work of Dr Mycock’s ‘History Wars’ group will continue throughout the WWI centenary commemorations.

This includes a public lecture by Dr Mycock, entitled ‘The Politics of the First World War Centenary’, at Huddersfield University on June 18.

History Wars will examine plans to commemorate WWI and challenge the UK Government’s proposal that every school should despatch two pupils to former WWI battlefields to report back to their classmates.

Dr Mycock and his colleagues will be offering alternatives by working with schools around Huddersfield.

They will also be hosting an open day at Huddersfield University, including workshops on aspects of the conflict such as propaganda, poetry, media reportage and medical advances such as the treatment of shellshock.

Dr Mycock said: “It is highly likely that by spending two or three days on the Western Front they are going to come back with the ‘Blackadder’ view that it was a futile war. It is unlikely that they are going to come back with a more critically sophisticated view.

“The problem is that the Government wants young people to take a message away from WWI, but they don’t know what that message is and they have actually got relatively few levers to affect people’s way of thinking.”

Dr Mycock added: “I want to see if there are there any generational commonalities and differences between the way that young people and older people see the war. It will be interesting to find out if modern generations have a more sophisticated view.”

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