Broken Men

Rezensionen / Stimmen

This is a deeply stimulating and, in many respects, arresting book. Based on original research, it breaks new ground in getting us to see how entangled are our ideas and beliefs about shell shock with the meanings we have ascribed to the First World War. If we are to reconsider shell shock, we shall also have to reconsider the First World War. This book will be an invaluable aid in that process. Author article in BBC History Magazine, Novmber 2009 This book offers an important, and as yet under-researched, approach to understanding the history of shell-shock...overall the book is well written, brings to light important material that has been neglected in much of the writing on this topic, and argues convincingly for the importance of returning to primary sources to understand the conflicting versions of shell-shock and their social and political impact, during and in the immediate aftermath of the war. Very importantly, it brings new material and a new angle to this discussion. It is Reid's judicious and non-sentimental analysis of the aftermath of war for shell-shocked men that makes this a book well worth reading. ... an insightful and well-researched study with much to say about how interwar Britain struggled to understand and manage the veteran scarred by his experience of war. * Social History of Medicine, vol 25, no 3, August 2012 *