London - Shell Shock and the Shock of Shells

One hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service. Joanna Bourke stunned academics and the reading public alike with her extraordinary study 'An Intimate History of Killing', since which she has written studies of Fear, Rape, Pain and Humanity. Shell Shock and the Shock of Shells draws on the letters and diaries of soldiers and their families. In this essay she returns to the First World War to reflect not only on shell shock, but also on the actual shells themselves, presenting her latest research into their physical impact and the language which evolved to describe them. Her essay was recorded with an audience at the Imperial War Museum in London.