Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War

New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. First edition. Hardcover. Fine/fine. First printing. A fine, fersh copy in equally fine dust jacket. Hardcover. 451 pp. with bibliography, index, illustrations. A unique study of a largely understudied aspect of World War I, the treatment of psychiatric casualties of the British soldier, thousands of whom were put in lunatic asylums after the war, thought to be "insane through fighting for thier country". The author draws on records from the front lines, case histories, personal letters, and war pension files and recounts poignant, sometimes ribald life stories of this neglected group. Public feeling towards those afflicted resulted in the emergence of the "People's Lunatic", producing major concessions from authorities; he goes on to examine the fate of the People's Lunatic in the class antagonisms between the wars and the uphill struggles that ex-servicement faced trying to secure jusitce from the iron behemoth that w sthe Ministry of Pensions.