John Galsworthy and disabled soldiers of the Great War
with an illustrated selection of his writingsJeffrey S. Reznick
"Jeffrey Reznick’s elegant new book is truly revelatory. He uncovers a hitherto hidden side of John Galsworthy, one of the most popular fiction-writers and dramatists of the twentieth century."
Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck College, University of London
"Those interested in war and disability will be grateful to Jeffrey Reznick for resurrecting the story of this period of Galsworthy’s long career, and for reprinting, alongside his excellent introduction, Galsworthy’s neglected writing about the rehabilitation and reintegration of the casualties of the Great War."
David Gerber, University at Buffalo (SUNY)
"Jeffrey Reznick’s subtle and empathetic study of John Galsworthy and his advocacy of disable soldiers of the Great War not only collects Galsworthy’s writings on disability and the War to End All Wars but also frames these important texts with a sophisticated and detailed account of Galsworthy’s role in British rehabilitation medicine and the cultural politics of disability. This book is an important contribution to disability history as well as to the study of Britain between the wars."
Sander L. Gilman, Emory University
"This is a book for our times. It opens a window onto an extraordinary world of caring for the war-maimed during four momentous years of industrialised conflict. Reznick is a professional historian of Occupational Therapy, and an expert guide. His sharp intellectual curiosity combines meticulous research with an interdisciplinary understanding of modern investigations into conflict. In an erudite and accessible style, he reveals an intimate empathy with the human consequences of war by reclaiming and revaluing Galsworthy’s ‘lost’ historical texts and making them available for modern study. Reznick has rendered a service to us all in a book which resonates with scholarly insights and humanity. He restores a forgotten dimension to the personality of one of the twentieth century’s most prolific authors, and provides us with a wealth of Galsworthy’s hitherto almost inaccessible writings."
Nicholas J. Saunders, University of Bristol
John Galsworthy (1867-1933) – recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for literature – was one of the best-selling authors of the twentieth century. While his name has become synonymous with The Forsyte Saga, his reputation in this context belies another he achieved during the Great War, which was his humanitarian support for and his compositions about soldiers disabled in the conflict and more specifically what he described as the ‘the sacred work’ of rehabilitating these ‘stricken heroes of the war’ who, ‘in every township and village of our countries…will dwell for the next half-century’.
John Galsworthy and disabled soldiers of the Great War represents the most comprehensive study published to date about this aspect of Galsworthy’s life and this literature of the ‘war to end all wars.’ It makes available for the first time in a single edition the most significant of his compositions about disabled soldiers, recovering them from scholarly neglect, examining their value as historical documents and connecting them to iconic images and artifacts of the period. In achieving these aims this work combines with various trajectories of scholarship and with renewed popular interest in Galsworthy to make him and his writings more relevant to current dialogue about the immediate and future care of soldiers disabled in war.
John Galsworthy and disabled soldiers of the Great War will be of interest to a wide academic audience, to popular audiences interested in the history of the Great War, to policymakers associated with veterans’ issues, and to medical and allied-health professionals in the fields of physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Contents:-
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
John Galsworthy and the Great War: Rediscovery and reappraisal
Part I – Non-fiction
1. Foreword to The Queen’s gift book in aid of Queen Mary’s convalescent auxiliary hospitals for soldiers and sailors who have lost their limb in the war
2. Totally disabled
3. For the maimed – now!
4. Remade or marred: A great national duty
5. The need for reality
6. Kitchener Houses: Occupation and convalescence
7. The sacred work
8. The gist of the matter
9. Looking ahead
10. Spirit and letter
Part II – Fiction
At home in England
11. The recruit
12. Heritage
13. Addresses some soldiers on their future
At Hôpital Bénévole in France
14. Flotsam and Jetsam: A reminiscence
15. ‘Cafard’
16. Poirot and Bidan: A recollection
Selected chronology, 1914-1933
Selected bibliography
Index
Jeffrey S. Reznick is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Modern History of the University of Birmingham, a member of Birmingham’s Centre for First World War Studies and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Cultural History of Modern War
216x138mm 240pp
hb 9780719077920 30 November 2009 £60.00
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