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Zusatztext Steeped in archival research and personal accounts, this is a necessary book about the experience of soldiers in the British Army during the First World War. Simon Harold Walker skillfully and expertly demonstrates how men conceptualized their time in uniform and physically endured life at the front. This will be a lasting contribution to the field. Informationen zum Autor Simon Harold Walker is Research Associate at University of Glasgow, UK.An exploration of the physical and psychological experience of being a soldier during the First World War. Zusammenfassung From enlistment in 1914 to the end of service in 1918, British men’s bodies were constructed, conditioned, and controlled in the pursuit of allied victory. Physical Control, Transformation and Damage in the First World War considers the physical and psychological impact of conflict on individuals and asks the question of who, in the heart of war, really had control of the soldier’s body.As men learned to fight they became fitter, healthier, and physically more agile, yet much of this was quickly undone once they entered the fray and became wounded, died, or harmed their own bodies to escape. Employing a wealth of sources, including personal testimonies, official records, and oral accounts, Simon Harold Walker sheds much-needed light on soldiers’ own experiences of World War I as they were forced into martial moulds and then abandoned in the aftermath of combat. In this book, Walker expertly synthesizes military, sociological, and medical history to provide a unique top-down history of individual soldiers’ experiences during the Great War, giving a voice to the thousands of missing, mutilated, and muted men who fought for their country. The result is a fascinating exploration of body cultures, power, and the British army. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: ‘A Different Existence’1. A Fine Body of Men: Recruitment and Enlisting for War 1914 - 19182. Forging Bodies: Training and Creating Soldiers3. Lives on the Line: Active Service4. Bodies Under Fire: The Frontline5. Soldiers No More: Death, Debilitation, and DemobilisationConclusion: Bodies of WarBibliographyIndex...
