Shell Shock - Traumatic Neurosis and the British Soldiers of the First World War

XI, 229 p.

Preface Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: DISCOVERIES Shocking Modernity: Hysteria, Technology and Warfare Casualties: On the Western Front PART II: WARTIME Enlistment: Army Policy, Politics and the Press Treatment: On the Home Front Patients: The Other Ranks Patients: The Officer Ranks PART II: LEGACIES Demobilization: On Returning Home Veterans: War Neurotic Ex-Servicemen Recall: The Great War in the Twentieth Century Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

An exploration of the unique British cultural heritage of 'shell shock', which has held such an important position as part of the popular memory (poetry, fiction, film) of the Great War through the twentieth century

The author uses original and unusual source material: medical records, personal writings in diaries, hospital magazines etc. to give a unique insight into personal experience

Leese's work has been endorsed by Professor Jay Winter of Yale University and Professor Roy Porter of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine

Copertina morbida

Palgrave Macmillan UK

PETER LEESE is Senior Lecturer in Social and Cultural History at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.

'One of the crucial and most moving episodes of twentieth century British history has now found its worthy historian. Peter Leese writes the story of shell shock with expertise and flair, with critical detachment and compassion. Avoiding judgementalism, he brings out the full enormity of this tragic story.' - Professor Roy Porter, Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine

'The book fills a glaring gap in our historical knowledge.' - Mark Micale, Associate Professor of History, University of Illinois

'Shell shock was born as a condition in 1915 but has grown to become a metaphor for the horrors of total war. Leese tells the story of that evolution with learning, sympathy and a shrewd sense of the way medical history can illuminate our understanding of the violent twentieth-century as a whole.' - Professor Jay Winter, Department of History, Yale University

'...a powerful and authoritative study of the war's mental legacy.' - Ben Shephard, Times Literary Supplement

'Those willing to pay attention, however, will be rewarded by this first full-length treatment of Britain's 'shell-shock' experience.' - Maureen T. Moore, Journal of Military History

'...an interesting contribution both to medical history and to the continuing debate about...WWI. - T.L. Crosby, Choice

Inglese

2002

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