The People’s Centenary? Public History, Remembering and Forgetting in Britain’s First World War Centenary

Abstract

Between 2014 and 2019, Great Britain and Northern Ireland undertook the largest public history project ever seen there. To mark the centenary of the First World War (1914–18) thousands of public arts projects, community histories, and acts of commemoration and remembrance took place across the country. This article explores a range of public arts projects, commemorative events, and community heritage projects to see what these widespread and diverse public histories can tell us about the cultural memory of the First World War in early twenty-first century Britain.