Enduring the Great War - Combat, Morale and Collapse...

[bierast]

Can anyone comment on this new Cambridge University title? I am curious as the index pages provided as a PDF list several references to the Saxon 241 Division, in which my great-grandfather served for the last two years of the war

Enduring the Great War

"An innovative comparative history of how German and British soldiers endured the horror of the First World War. Unlike existing literature, which emphasises the strength of societies or military institutions, this study argues that at the heart of armies’ robustness lay natural human resilience. Drawing widely on contemporary letters and diaries of British and German soldiers, psychiatric reports and official documentation, and interpreting these sources with modern psychological research, this unique account provides new insights into the soldiers’ fears, motivations and coping mechanisms. It explains why the British outlasted their opponents by examining and comparing the motives for fighting, the effectiveness with which armies and societies supported men and the combatants' morale throughout the conflict on both sides. Finally it challenges the current consensus on the war’s end, arguing that not a 'covert strike' but rather an 'ordered surrender' led by junior officers brought about Germany’s defeat in 1918."