Life — November 25, 1920 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Life" Magazine Post-WWI Commentary This page critiques post-war attitudes toward veterans. "In Retrospect" is a poem condemning those who've forgotten soldiers' sacrifices at Flanders and in the trenches. It attacks public forgetfulness and ingratitude toward "the Soldiers of Yesterday." The middle section presents quotes from returned soldiers expressing cynicism about civilian life—indifference to material possessions, refusal to gossip, emotional detachment. The satirical point: veterans return psychologically damaged and alienated, unable to readjust to trivial peacetime concerns. The photograph shows two men in formal attire (likely at a church or civic event based on the caption about churches merging). The caption's frustration—"they can't decide which one!"—appears to mock institutional ineffectiveness, contrasting civilian bureaucratic ineptitude with veterans' real suffering.