Transatlantic Shell Shock

Upon the end of the Great War in 1918, soldiers and nurses returned to their homes on either side of the Atlantic. Although no longer actively engaged in fighting, they still suffered the traumatic effects of war. Caught between society’s ideas of masculinity and war, these men and women struggled to communicate their experiences.

Transatlantic Shell Shock examines the private and public opinions about shell shock in the United States and the United Kingdom post-World War I. Men and women fought to come to terms with their often misrepresented and misunderstood war trauma. First-hand accounts, such as diaries, memoirs, and periodicals, examine the contrasting discourse in British and American literatures.