The Great War: A Literary Perspective

Abstract

Historian Raymond Sontag's book about the interwar period from 1919 to 1939 has a graphic title, "A Broken World" (1971). In the preface to his book, Sontag tells us he borrowed his title from Gabriel Marcel's play of 1933, "Le monde casse," a play in which Marcel's heroine seems to say we live in an age when the values that once gave meaning to life no longer animate us. Analysis of the literature produced by those who participated in the First World War and those who have carefully studied it suggests that the war was one of those historical events that affected human consciousness profoundly. The literature on World War I is vast, and selection of what is purported to be the essence of the experience risks distortion -- despite one's best intentions. The works cited in this essay were selected for no reason other than that they got it right in reflecting prewar moods, the experience of war, and expectations for life after the war.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1987
Accession Number
ADA522029

Entities

People

  • Henry G. Gole

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artillery
  • Artillery Ammunition
  • Civil War
  • Education
  • Instructors
  • International Organizations
  • Materials
  • New York
  • Schools
  • Societies
  • Sociopolitics
  • Students
  • United States
  • War
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) EDI Research and Innovation.