{"product_id":"war-isnt-the-only-hell-keith-gandal-9781421425108","title":"War Isn't the Only Hell: A New Reading of World War I American Literature","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA vigorous reappraisal of American literature inspired by the First World War.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmerican World War I literature has long been interpreted as an alienated outcry against modern warfare and government propaganda. This prevailing reading ignores the US army's unprecedented attempt during World War I to assign men--except, notoriously, African Americans--to positions and ranks based on merit. And it misses the fact that the culture granted masculinity only to combatants, while the noncombatant majority of doughboys experienced a different alienation: that of shame.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on military archives, current research by social-military historians, and his own readings of thirteen major writers, Keith Gandal seeks to put American literature written after the Great War in its proper context--as a response to the shocks of war \u003ci\u003eand\u003c\/i\u003e meritocracy. The supposedly antiwar texts of noncombatant Lost Generation authors Dos Passos, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cummings, and Faulkner addressed--often in coded ways--the noncombatant failure to measure up. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGandal also examines combat-soldier writers William March, Thomas Boyd, Laurence Stallings, and Hervey Allen. Their works are considered straight-forward antiwar narratives, but they are in addition shaped by experiences of meritocratic recognition, especially meaningful for socially disadvantaged men. Gandal furthermore contextualizes the sole World War I novel by an African American veteran, Victor Daly, revealing a complex experience of both army discrimination and empowerment among the French. Finally, Gandal explores three women writers--Katherine Anne Porter, Willa Cather, and Ellen La Motte--who saw the war create frontline opportunities for women while allowing them to be arbiters of masculinity at home. Ultimately, \u003ci\u003eWar Isn't the Only Hell\u003c\/i\u003e shows how American World War I literature registered the profound ways in which new military practices and a foreign war unsettled traditional American hierarchies of class, ethnicity, gender, and even race.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Keith Gandal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1421425106\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781421425108\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Johns Hopkins University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/16\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/01\/2018","brand":"Keith Gandal","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44064682967295,"sku":"9781421425108","price":47.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_afdf8044-4adc-4778-a751-c4be39b5237f.jpg?v=1685396931","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/war-isnt-the-only-hell-keith-gandal-9781421425108","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}