The Great War and Modern Memory

First published in 1975, this study examines how British writing about the Western Front of 1914-18 used irony, pastoral, and theatrical language to make sense of trench war. Fussell reads memoirs and poems by Sassoon, Graves, Owen, Blunden, and others against the official rhetoric of the war. He treats rumor, ritual, and the contrast between home and the line as literary forms as much as facts. The argument is about remembrance and style, not a campaign history of battles. The book is cultural criticism of war literature, not a general military survey.

Bound in dark red buckram, cover blocked with yellow and grey artwork by Frances Button based on a First World War Recruitment Poster. Grey slipcase.