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11%OFFLeonard V. Smith - The Embattled Self: French Soldiers´ Testimony of the Great War - 9780801479564 - V9780801479564
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The Embattled Self: French Soldiers´ Testimony of the Great War

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Description for The Embattled Self: French Soldiers´ Testimony of the Great War Paperback. Num Pages: 232 pages, black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: HBWN. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 153 x 229 x 14. Weight in Grams: 328.

How did the soldiers in the trenches of the Great War understand and explain battlefield experience, and themselves through that experience? Situated at the intersection of military history and cultural history, The Embattled Self draws on the testimony of French combatants to explore how combatants came to terms with the war. In order to do so, they used a variety of narrative tools at hand—rites of passage, mastery, a character of the soldier as a consenting citizen of the Republic. None of the resulting versions of the story provided a completely consistent narrative, and all raised more questions about the ... Read more

Smith canvasses the vast literature of nonfictional and fictional testimony from French soldiers to understand how and why the "embattled self" changed over time. In the process, he undermines the conventional understanding of the war as tragedy and its soldiers as victims, a view that has dominated both scholarly and popular opinion since the interwar period. The book is important reading not only for traditional historians of warfare but also for scholars in a variety of fields who think critically about trauma and the use of personal testimony in literary and historical studies.

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Product Details

Format
Paperback
Publication date
2014
Publisher
Cornell University Press
Condition
New
Number of Pages
232
Place of Publication
Ithaca, United States
ISBN
9780801479564
SKU
V9780801479564
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-1

About Leonard V. Smith
Leonard V. Smith is Frederick B. Artz Professor of History at Oberlin College. He is the author of Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division during World War I, coauthor of France and the Great War, 1914–1918, and coeditor of France at War: Vichy and the Historians.

Reviews for The Embattled Self: French Soldiers´ Testimony of the Great War
Smith's analysis of these narratives makes for absorbing reading.... I particularly enjoyed Smith's analysis of Marc Bloch's war diary and the narrative he wrote from it several months later. It is an illuminating example of the conundrum that faced the war writers—and perhaps all writers who attempt to construct narrative from experience. The Embattled Self stands on the intersection of ... Read more

Goodreads reviews for The Embattled Self: French Soldiers´ Testimony of the Great War


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