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Robert Graves

Mentioned 5 times across 1 podcast this week

This Week's Pulse

The legendary British poet and memoirist Robert Graves continues to serve as the definitive lens for understanding the horrors of the First World War, as highlighted in recent discussions on The Rest Is History. Historian Dominic Sandbrook points to his seminal memoir, Goodbye to All That, as a "fantastic, fantastic window into the experience of the war."

In Dominic Sandbrook's analysis, the value of Robert Graves lies in his visceral, ground-level reporting of life in the trenches. He describes the heavy, cumbersome reality of a soldier's kit, noting that "he's got on his belt a revolver, field glasses, compass, whiskey flask, wire cutters, periscope, and a lot more." This granular detail strips away the romanticism often associated with the conflict, focusing instead on the sheer physical exhaustion and the constant, lethal proximity of the enemy.

Beyond his military service, the show emphasizes his broader literary contributions, including the acclaimed I, Claudius. Dominic Sandbrook highlights Robert Graves's early realization that the nature of warfare had fundamentally shifted by 1914, quoting him saying, "This is not war as I understand it. This is something different. I do not know how you break this barbed wire and machine guns and stuff." As the podcast progresses, expect more focus on how these literary voices shaped our modern collective memory of the Great War.

Where it's discussed

671. The First World War: Blood in the Trenches (Part 1)

The Rest Is History

Dominic Sandbrookneutralfrom “Robert Graves and the First World War”

A poet, classical scholar, and junior officer in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers who wrote a memoir about his experiences in World War I.

“But his memoir, Goodbye to All That, is a fantastic, fantastic window into the experience of the war. So to give you a sense of Robert Graves, he was born into a fairly wealthy Anglo-Irish family in 1895. He went to Charterhouse, one of the great public school…”

Dominic Sandbrookneutralfrom “Life in the Trenches: Robert Graves and the Reality of WWI”

A soldier whose memoir provides the primary account of arriving at the front lines and meeting his superior officer.

“Yes, exactly. So by now, I mean, he's pretty tired. They've been on the road a long time. He's carrying, they're all carrying these heavy kit bags, and they've hung everything else on their belts. He's got on his belt a revolver, field glasses, compass, whiske…”

Dominic Sandbrookpositivefrom “The Origins of Trench Warfare in World War I”

Author of the celebrated literary memoir 'Goodbye to All That' and 'I, Claudius'.

“Great mustache. He goes to see the trenches at the end of 1914 and he says, "This is not war as I understand it," you know? "This is something different. I do not know how you break th- this barbed wire and machine guns and stuff." Anyway, what was it actually…”

Dominic Sandbrookneutralfrom “Ernst Jünger and the Experience of the First World War”

A contemporary writer and soldier whose war memoir is compared to Jünger's.

“He has an incredible life, uh, Ernst Jünger. You know, you can trace the whole of German 20th century history through his life, really. He was born in Heidelberg in 1895, and his father was a rich kind of chemist, kind of chemical engineer. And he went to boar…”

Dominic Sandbrookneutralfrom “The Brutality and Psychological Toll of Trench Warfare”

A friend of Siegfried Sassoon who served in France.

“Yeah. Um, I, I-- So one French trench journal, Le Soucis, quoted by Neil Ferguson in his book, The Pity of War, describes the shelling as a, a form of torture that the soldier cannot see the end of. And this is one thing I think, you know, we can imagine what …”