Blommaert, JanVaris, Piia2020-11-052020-11-052015Blommaert, J., & Varis, P. (2015). The importance of unimportant language. Multilingual Margins, 2(1):4-9https://doi.org/10.14426/mm.v2i1.30https://hdl.handle.net/10566/5363In a recent paper, the Australian historian, Martyn Lyons (2013), reviews his attempts to study �history from below�, using what can be called grassroots writing by French and Italian soldiers of the Great War. Lyons remarks that the �First World War produced a flood of letter-writing by peasants whose literary capacity has often been underestimated� (Lyons 2013: 5).enWorld War IBanalityImportance of communicationWriting lettersSoldiers of the great warArticle