Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War

by Paul Fussell

Overview

Winner of the National Book Award, Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory was one of the most original and gripping volumes ever written about the First World War. In Wartime, Fussell turns to the Second World War, the conflict he himself fought in, to weave a narrative that is both more intensely personal and more wide-ranging. Fussell examines the immediate impact of the war on common soldiers and civilians; analyzes the euphemisms people needed to deal with unacceptable reality; and, most important, he emphasizes the damage the war did to intellect, discrimination, honesty, individuality, complexity, ambiguity and wit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195037975
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/07/1989
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	6.46(w) x 9.44(h) x 1.02(d)
Lexile:	1500L (what's this?)

About the Author

Paul Fussell is Donald T. Regan Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of nine other books, including The Great War and Modern Memory, Abroad: British Literary Traveling Between the Wars and The Boy Scout Handbook and Other Observations

Editorial Reviews

"Paul Fussell has written the best book I know of about World War I. Now he has written the best book I know of about the Second World War. No novel I've read surpasses its depiction of the awful human cost to all sides of modern warfare. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it is unforgettable."—Joseph Heller

"This brilliant, engaging cultural history quietly subverts our whitewashed collective memory of the war."—Publishers Weekly

"Fussell is a wonderful writer—at once elegant and earthy. He gives us much to ponder in this volume, and...considerable pleasure."—The Washington Post Book World

"An excellent study. Compliments the great War and Modern Memory. Will use again!"—Kirk Bunte, Mesa State College

"Different, distinctive, valuable—I've already adopted it for this semester."—Professor John R.M. Wilson, Southern California College

From the Publisher