Imagining World War II

 

The Owl, January 1938.

World War II affected Wadleigh students in several different ways. Making sense of it required Wadleigh students to imagine events, processes and characters that sometimes were far away from them, both in terms of time and space. Their 'historical imagination' about the war was informed by their past experiences, present knowledge and hopes and fears about the future. Like the war, their imagination extended throughout the world.

Through the different pieces Wadleigh students wrote for The Owl between 1931 and 1945, we invite you to explore how they historically imagined World War II and how, by doing so, they were claiming their agency as actors of their own histories and that of the world.