Healing the Nation is a study of caregiving during the Great War, exploring life behind the lines for ordinary British soldiers who served on the Western Front. Using a variety of literary, artistic, and architectural evidence, this study draws connections between the war machine and the wartime culture of caregiving: the product of medical knowledge and procedure, social relationships and health institutions that informed experiences of rest, recovery and rehabilitation in sites administered by military and voluntary-aid authorities.

Rest huts, hospitals, and rehabilitation centres served not only as means to sustain manpower and support for the war but also as distinctive sites where soldiers, their caregivers and the public attempted to make sense of the conflict and the unprecedented change it wrought. Revealing aspects of wartime life that have received little attention, this study shows that Britain's 'generation of 1914' was a group bound as much by a comradeship of healing as by a comradeship of the trenches.

The author has used an extensive collection of illustrations in his discussion, and the book will make fascinating reading for students and specialists in the history of war, medicine and gender studies.

About the Author
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. [for the dust jacket]: Jeffrey S. Reznick is Executive Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Orthotic and Prosthetic Assistance Fund. A native of Rochester, New York, he received his undergraduate education at the University of Rochester.

Reviews
"'Reznick tells a fascinating story with verve and an eye for the big picture. This book makes a substantial contribution to war medicine and the cultural history of war.' Professor Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck College"



Book Information
ISBN 9780719069741
Author Jeffrey Reznick
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 138mm * 13mm