A review by bobbo49
The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell
4.0
Fifteen years ago, when I returned to university for a teaching credential, I also took some upper level history classes just for the experience. One of those classes was on World War I, and the excellent professor taught the class through both non-fiction and literature; it was here that I first read Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and others. Somehow, we never were introduced to Fussell's award-winning work.
Fussell here revisits that war - and its successors - through that literature, in great depth and intimacy. He provides the background and context for each of the great writers, including their war service and experience. He uses passages from their writings to highlight the ways in which that first global conflict destroyed an entire generation in western Europe and changed the way the world thought about nation states and human life and destruction. An intense, deep and personalized view of war and remembrance; sometimes difficult reading, but filled with beautiful writings.
Fussell here revisits that war - and its successors - through that literature, in great depth and intimacy. He provides the background and context for each of the great writers, including their war service and experience. He uses passages from their writings to highlight the ways in which that first global conflict destroyed an entire generation in western Europe and changed the way the world thought about nation states and human life and destruction. An intense, deep and personalized view of war and remembrance; sometimes difficult reading, but filled with beautiful writings.