by Phillip Rock
7. Through Dulcie’s activism we see a side of English society that the Grevilles are not privy to—unwed mothers, closed factories, lines of the unemployed, and protest marches. How does Colin’s perspective change as a result of working with Dulcie?
8. Does Dulcie support the war? Why or why not? What insights do Jennifer Wood-Lacy’s and Dulcie’s efforts give into British society at this time?
9. After Neville Chamberlain signs the Munich Agreement, permitting Germany to annex Sudetenland in an attempt to avoid going to war, Albert Thaxton witnesses celebration in the streets of London. Demonstrating the appreciation of the peace movement, a woman sings the American antiwar song “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier,” printed on the following page. Why does this political agreement inspire Jennifer to resign from the peace movement, while many of the activists are ecstatic?
10. What do you think compels some of the characters, like Colin and Derek, to enlist? What compels others, like Jennifer Wood-Lacy or Dulcie, to work for peace or social progress?
11. Why does Jennifer refuse Albert’s proposal of marriage at first? Did you agree with her decision? How do the young couples in the novel—Jennifer and Albert, Derek and Valerie, Colin and Kate—find ways to reconcile the demands of a country at war with their personal lives?
12. How does Rock portray the technological and military innovations of the war, from Martin’s radio broadcasts to the planes flown by Colin and Derek? How do those innovations affect the lives of the characters?
13. In what ways does the Passing Bells trilogy support or discredit romantic notions of war, honor, and patriotism?
Read On
The Wartime World of A Future Arrived
IN CHAPTER 9 of A Future Arrived, Albert Thaxton witnesses celebration in the streets of London after Neville Chamberlain signs the Munich Agreement. A woman at a piano plays “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier,” an American antiwar song that helped to strengthen the pacifist movement before the U.S. entered World War I.
“I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier”
Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,
Who may never return again.
Ten million mothers’ hearts must break,
For the ones who died in vain.
Head bowed down in sorrow in her lonely years,
I heard a mother murmur thro’ her tears:
Chorus:
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy,
Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,
It’s time to lay the sword and gun away,
There’d be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.
What victory can cheer a mother’s heart,
When she looks at her blighted home?
What victory can bring her back,
All she cared to call her own?
Let each mother answer in the year to be,
Remember that my boy belongs to me!
(Chorus)
Source: Al Pianadosi and Alfred Bryan, “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier,” 1915. Recording: Edison Collection, Library of Congress.
Poster for the movie All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), featuring star Lew Ayres.
World War II propaganda poster for the United States.
The line “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” is from a wartime speech made by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on August 20, 1940. This line referred to the ongoing efforts of the Royal Air Force pilots who were fighting the Battle of Britain, the pivotal air battle with the German Luftwaffe. Britain expected a German invasion.
The RAF Supermarine Spitfire, used extensively during the Battle of Britain.
Shots from a Supermarine Spitfire Mark I hitting a Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 (left) on its starboard quarter.
Also by Phillip Rock
The Extraordinary Seaman
The Dead in Guanajuato
Flickers
The Passing Bells
Circles of Time
Credits
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Cover image © by Richard Jenkins
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
A FUTURE ARRIVED. Copyright © 1985 by Phillip Rock. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
This book was originally published in 1985 by Seaview/Putnam.
FIRST WILLIAM MORROW PAPERBACK PUBLISHED 2013
ISBN 978-0-06-222935-9
EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062229366
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