Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War

Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War

by PeterBarham (Author)

Synopsis

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.

$3.44

Save:$43.08 (93%)

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 464
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 03 Aug 2004

ISBN 10: 0300103794
ISBN 13: 9780300103793

Media Reviews
a deeply researched and beautifully written recovery of the lives of tens of thousands of ordinary men driven mad by war. - Tom Laqueur, University of California, Berkeley
Author Bio
Peter Barham is a psychologist an social historian of mental health. He has published widely on mental health issues but this is his first full-length historical work.