Do we view WW1 the same way as people saw the Napoleonic Wars in WW2???

So I was watching Swiss Family Robenson which is based during the Napoleonic wars and heard the reference by the mother scorning napoleon. It almost sounded how people scorned Hitler.

So it got me thinking.

Do we today view ww1 the same way people saw the Napoleonic wars in ww2?
 
So I was watching Swiss Family Robenson which is based during the Napoleonic wars and heard the reference by the mother scorning napoleon. It almost sounded how people scorned Hitler.

So it got me thinking.

Do we today view ww1 the same way people saw the Napoleonic wars in ww2?
The gap in time between the Napoleonic wars and the 1940s was not much more than that between WW1 and today. (125 years versus around 100) However, that's one extra generation and given the rise in life expectancy since 1900, there are far more people alive today that as children knew people that had lived through WW1 than in the 1940s would have known people alive in the Napoleonic era. So there's more personal or familial interest. In Europe the wars of Italian and German reunification, and the pushing back of the Ottomans in the Balkans would have been more well known. In Britain and the Dominions the Boer Wars and the building of the Empire after 1815. Crimean war and Indian mutiny especially.

In the US would the Civil War and the frontline expansion mean far more to the public in 1940 than the Napoleonic era? Even with the War of 1812 a historic milestone for the US.

I'm sure there were similarities in the view of the events but I doubt that these influenced popular politics or culture in the same view.

Happy to be convinced otherwise of course.
 
They were different kinds of wars. I doubt it can be compared in terms of how people thought about it. Especially since we look at WW1 through WW2, whilst in the early 30's the world was still recovering from WW1 itself, so why bother discussing or even thinking about the Napoleonic wars? What WW1 brought about for them had way more impact than the Napoleonic war, people who experienced the napoleonic wars(or heard stories from them) probably agreed with that.
 
I am not sure that Swiss Family Robinson is a good indication of political views. Remember that Wyss was a Swiss pastor writing a story for his children. Switzerland was neutral so his views may be, probably were, different than those directly involved in the conflict. Also the book has to be viewed as part of a similar genre of children's nature books like Charlotte Turner Smith's "Rural Walks: in Dialogues intended for the use of Young Persons". The goal was to educate both scientifically and morally. Wyss used an example he figured his children and others would recognize,
 

marathag

Banned
Napoleonic Wars was a decade of brilliant battles with some huge defeats, with larger than life Generals, with Nappy, the Corsican Ogre, at the top, with his Nemesis, Duke of Wellington, right behind, and then a host of interesting commanders under each

WWI was Lions led by Donkeys, butchers killing men for no gain for four years, over and over and over.

about the only heroic figure out from the whole mess was von Lettow-Vorbeck on the ground, and then the Flying Aces, 'Knights of the Air'
 
WWI was Lions led by Donkeys, butchers killing men for no gain for four years, over and over and over.

about the only heroic figure out from the whole mess was von Lettow-Vorbeck on the ground, and then the Flying Aces, 'Knights of the Air'
Ahem

1603660417649.png
 

marathag

Banned
And the numerous Victoria Cross, Iron Cross, Croix de Guerre, and Medal of Honor winners, as well as the sacrifice of individual soldiers
People today might be able to name one or two of them
Without the David Lean film, T.E.L would be near as as unknown as Lettow-Vorbeck
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Bump for his Book in 1926, when he died, and then with the Movie
Lettow Vorbeck
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Napoleon
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all from 1914 to 1980

Napoleon still was in the thoughts of many
 
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