The Great War and Modern Memory

This book, published in 1970, examines how the trauma and tragedy of World War I were reflected in literature.

Fussell focuses on the British experience at the Western Front, analyzing the works of writers such as Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Edmund Blunden, David Jones, Isaac Rosenberg, and Wilfred Owen.

He grounds literary texts in the actual conditions of the war, showing how the cataclysm of the Great War brought about significant changes in language and literature.

The book is acclaimed for its accessible scholarship, ambition, and detailed research, and it remains a landmark study in understanding the impact of World War I on modern society and literature.