Although the shell-shocked British soldier of Word War I has been a favoured subject in both fiction and nonfiction, focus has been on the stories of officers, and the history of the rank and file servicemen who were psychiatric casualties has never been told. This profoundly moving book recounts the poignant, sometimes ribald histories of this neglected group for the first time. Peter Barham draws on reports from the front lines, case histories, personal letters, and war pensions files to trace the lives and fortunes of a ...
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Although the shell-shocked British soldier of Word War I has been a favoured subject in both fiction and nonfiction, focus has been on the stories of officers, and the history of the rank and file servicemen who were psychiatric casualties has never been told. This profoundly moving book recounts the poignant, sometimes ribald histories of this neglected group for the first time. Peter Barham draws on reports from the front lines, case histories, personal letters, and war pensions files to trace the lives and fortunes of a large cast of ex-servicemen who suffered mental breakdowns. He describes the confines of their asylums, the reactions of families to their relatives' plight, the turmoil of the soldiers when they returned home - and the uphill struggle they faced trying to secure justice from the bureaucratic labyrinth that was the Minitstry of Pensions. His book gives a new perspective to the impact of the Great War and to current controversies about disputed postwar maladies.
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Seller's Description:
Fine in fine jacket. First printing. A fine, fersh copy in equally fine dust jacket. Hardcover. 451 pp. with bibliography, index, illustrations. A unique study of a largely understudied aspect of World War I, the treatment of psychiatric casualties of the British soldier, thousands of whom were put in lunatic asylums after the war, thought to be "insane through fighting for thier country". The author draws on records from the front lines, case histories, personal letters, and war pension files and recounts poignant, sometimes ribald life stories of this neglected group. Public feeling towards those afflicted resulted in the emergence of the "People's Lunatic", producing major concessions from authorities; he goes on to examine the fate of the People's Lunatic in the class antagonisms between the wars and the uphill struggles that ex-servicement faced trying to secure jusitce from the iron behemoth that w sthe Ministry of Pensions.
