A War Imagined

Apr 29, 2025 12:58 PM

Author:Samuel Hynes

A War Imagined

Between the opulent Edwardian years and the 1920s the First World War opens like a gap in time. England after the war was a different place; the arts were different; history was different; sex, society, class were all different.

Samuel Hynes examines the process of that transformation. He explores a vast cultural mosaic comprising novels and poetry, music and theatre, journalism, paintings, films, parliamentary debates, public monuments, sartorial fashions, personal diaries and letters.

Told in rich detail, this penetrating account shatters much of the received wisdom about the First World War. It shows how English culture adapted itself to the needs of killing, how our stereotypes of the war gradually took shape and how the nations thought and imagination were profoundly and irretrievably changed.

Reviews

It is cultural history of a sweeping order... which can be savoured for its profusion of exhibits as well as for its ambitious thesis... A teeming book full of learning and humanity.

—— C. J. Fox , Independent

Makes tremendous sense... The wholly coherent effect of Hynes's study is all the more notable for the disintegrated nature of his material... A greatly rewarding study of how culture was dumbfounded.

—— Mick Imlah , The Times Literary Supplement

One of Prebble's great strengths is his ability to empathise with his subject matter.

—— Daily Mail

Marked by formidable research and passionate commitment to the cause of the poorest.

—— Spectator

One of our leading historians, whose works...are as scholarly as they are readable

—— Observer

From page one, it reads like a novel. How they uncovered all this stuff is remarkable

—— Don Imus

The most comprehensive look at the work of these intrepid sailors . . . A celebration of their ingenuity and valor

—— Baltimore Sun

Reads like an adventure novel, but it's all to real

—— Seyour M. Hersh, author of The Dark Side of Camelot

The veterans of the 'Silent Service' are silent no more

—— John Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy , Wall Street Journal

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