Coningsby Dawson (1883–1959)

This is a short, first hand account of one man’s experience in the first World War. The world that he experienced was made vivid by his descriptive narrative of his journey from peacetime in the US to a hospital bed in England via France. Dawson really does think there is glory in the trenches, though. He views those that go to battle with an “Onward Christian Soldiers” attitude that becomes quite preachy and religious in the last bit of the book. I disagree with his worldview and some of his reasoning but his story is compelling and worth reading.… (mehr)

This was hard to finish. Where the author recounts simple and basic things and puts aside his almost fanatic pro-war propaganda, this account is quite readable and imparts a few worthwhile insights.

But the rest is barely bearable to take in and reminded me a lot of fascist texts of the same era also written by participants in the Great War. In a way it explains how so shortly after the first there could be a second war, given such tendencies.

What shocked me most was the complete lack of insight into what was taking place with and within the invalids of the Great War. Even for someone not remotely knowledgeable about repression, peer pressure or PTSD it should be clear what was being done to those men.

Many other accounts of the war and the time right after show us men galore who were absolutely aware of the fact that their (continued) suffering was being swept under the rug, that society turned away from them, negated them and often even locked them up behind the conveniently closed doors of eugenics-influenced institutions.

Great Britain was the one participant in the Great War completely failing to have a public discourse and acknowledgement of the injuries done to its soldiers. Which resulted, almost needless to say, not just in men suffering severely from PTSD well into their old age, but men denied a true sense of being home and so many being done out of pensions, too incapacitated by the "get on with it" and peer-enforced gaiety to even fight for them.

To see this glorified with Christian zealotry in full brunt leaves an impressively bad after-taste, especially when compared to such insightful and self-analytical books like George Scott Atkinson's [b:A Soldier's Diary|14739332|A Soldier's Diary|George Scott Atkinson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1338294231s/14739332.jpg|20385047]. Written by another British participant, in the same time frame, it shows remarkably modern insights into what went on around him even while in the trenches. His distaste of how the public treated the veterans along with his own inability to own up to his feelings in direct communication is a striking closure of that account.

Juxtaposing the two explains not just my loathing for Dawson's book, but also for his attempted manipulation of the reader, which he and his father even owned up to.… (mehr)

What a wonderful little book. A collection of letters home from the Front in World War I, written by a superb author.

Dawson's father compiled these letters, written to family and friends, into a small 133 page book. Dawson was a writer of some accomplishment before he enlisted in the Canadian army. As an Englishman transplanted to the United States, he enlisted early. In fact, the last letter in the collection discusses the possibility of the Americans joining the war.

Dawson's style is musing and introspective. Due to censorship of the times he doesn't deal in specifics, but he gives us enough of a glimpse into his military life to understand a bit of the changes he undergoes. A fascinating slice of time and place. Highly recommended… (mehr)