For people in Britain during the First World War life was good How far do the sources in this paper support this state

1. �For people in Britain during the First World War life was good� How far do the sources in this paper support this statement 12 mark question that needs supported evidence and a balanced answer with a conclusion

2. Life in Britain was good Source B shows the upper classes enjoying holidays amidst war. This was part of the governments carrying on with normal life philosophy that underpinned their message of boosting morale Source F shows an upper class lady�s account of the work she undertook which was interesting and enjoyable Source G shows that people earnt more and ate much better as a result when you compare 1914 with 1918 SE: Source B was in a upper class Gentleman�s magazine and �10 was out of the pocket of most lower class workers so it was an advert for a minority Joan Williams�s memoirs might increase her fondness of war as she is writing so far after the war and was not doing the same paid work as others like source E An official government report might highlight these improvements to boost morale but many people may not have felt their lives were improving in the war

3. Life was never that good in war Source A tries to belittle bombing raids which must have scared people due to the damage caused, the deaths in coastal towns and wave after wave kept on coming Source C backs this up with details about casualties and devastation caused along the coast and long lasting damage done Source D backs up the idea of rationing and deprivations caused by war time blockades Source E talks of the hard punishing work that many women faced in the armaments and aircraft factories with noxious fumes, long hours and low pay SE: The cartoon has been published to down play the Zeppelin raids in response to public hysteria and panic over this new and deadly bombing missions. Life was not good on the coast Source C although written with inflammatory language has indisputable facts of who was injured and died along the coast Source D shows how resourceful people were forced to become in the kitchen Source E although written by a suffragette who was trying to raise concern over the plight of women and may have exaggerated her account does show a realistic example of what women faced as there were so few men working in these war time industries from 1915 onwards

4. Conclusion To say that life was good during the war for people on the home front tries to diminish the hardships people faced. Although some people carried on as if nothing happened and in hindsight food, diets and real wages increased a war can never be a good way to go about it. Similarly although the war helped in getting women the vote it was very difficult for them while the war went on to be credited for all they did. The Zeppelin bombing raids were scary and did cause unforseen damage to towns and killed innocents like never before. People did ration their food and some had worse diets and longer work hours and the undeniable fact is that war split families and killed many young men in their prime which can never have been good for those on the home front In conclusion although there was some good outcomes for most people the war was a hardship they never wanted to repeat