The Great War and Modern Memory, winner of the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and named by the Modern Library one of the twentieth century's 100 Best Non-Fiction Books, remains one of the most critical studies of war to date.
Fussell was said to have undertaken the study of World War I, viewed through a literary lens, out of his opposition to the US war in Vietnam. Part history, part chronicle of the ways in which the war altered points of view and engendered a particular way of seeing, and thus expressing reality, the book is essential to an understanding of war's impact on culture.
Fussell ushered in a new way of studying war; he demonstrated that war need not necessarily be documented through the military historical approach, but could be studied through a larger, cultural lens. His work is truly multi-disciplinary, and, along with other great works that examine war beyond battles and strategies, such as George Mosse's Fallen Soldiers and Modris Eksteins' Rites of Spring, Fussell's book remains significant as much for its groundbreaking approach as for its substance.
Fussell was said to have undertaken the study of World War I, viewed through a literary lens, out of his opposition to the US war in Vietnam. Part history, part chronicle of the ways in which the war altered points of view and engendered a particular way of seeing, and thus expressing reality, the book is essential to an understanding of war's impact on culture.
Fussell ushered in a new way of studying war; he demonstrated that war need not necessarily be documented through the military historical approach, but could be studied through a larger, cultural lens. His work is truly multi-disciplinary, and, along with other great works that examine war beyond battles and strategies, such as George Mosse's Fallen Soldiers and Modris Eksteins' Rites of Spring, Fussell's book remains significant as much for its groundbreaking approach as for its substance.