Bodies of Work
The First World War and the Transnational Making of Rehabilitation

Examines the transnational development of rehabilitation initiatives for disabled ex-servicemen of the First World War.

Julie M. Powell (Author)

9781009230285, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 October 2022

280 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.53 kg

'Bodies of Work is a landmark contribution to scholarship on World War I and the Allied war disabled. Powell's international scope of research is impressive, her prose engaging and insightful, and her arguments convincing and important. This book deserves the attention of all who are researching the war, its precedents, and its aftermath.' Jeffrey S. Reznick, author of John Galsworthy and Disabled Soldiers of the Great War

Bodies of Work examines the transnational development of large-scale national systems, international organizations, technologies, and cultural material aimed at rehabilitating Allied ex-servicemen, disabled in the First World War. When nations mobilised in August 1914, it was thought that casualties would be minimal and the war would be quickly over. Little consideration was given to what ought to be done for those men whose bodies would forever bear the marks of war's destruction. Julie M. Powell charts how rehabilitation emerged as the best means to deal with millions of disabled ex-servicemen. She considers the ways in which rehabilitation was shaped by both durable and discrete influences, including social reformism, paternalist philanthropy, the movement for workers' rights, patriotism, class tensions, cultural ideas about manliness and disability, nationalism, and internationalism. Powell sheds light on the ways in which rehabilitation systems became sites for the contestation and maintenance of boundaries of belonging.

List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction. Whole nations in arms
1. The gospel of rehabilitation
2. A great army of industrial soldiers
3. A duty incumbent on all allied people
4. He marches off on an entente leg
5. A charge almost if not quite as sacred
Conclusion. The right to rehabilitation
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX], Military history [HBW]