Overview

"Banned in multiple countries for its frank depiction of the horrors of war, Ellen N. La Motte's The Backwash of War is one of the most stunning antiwar books ever published. ""We are witnessing a phase in the evolution of humanity, a phase called War—and the slow, onward progress stirs up the slime in the shallows, and this is the Backwash of War. It is very ugly.""—Ellen N. La Motte In September 1916, as World War I advanced into a third deadly year, an American woman named Ellen N. La Motte published a collection of stories about her experience as a war nurse. Deemed damaging to morale, The Backwash of War was immediately banned in both England and France and later censored in wartime America. At once deeply unsettling and darkly humorous, this compelling book presents a unique view of the destruction wrought by war to the human body and spirit. Long neglected, it is an astounding book by an extraordinary woman and merits a place among major works of WWI literature. This volume gathers, for the first time, La Motte's published writing about the First World War. In addition to Backwash, it includes three long-forgotten essays. Annotated for a modern audience, the book features both a comprehensive introduction to La Motte's war-time writing in its historical and literary contexts and the first extended biography of the ""lost"" author of this ""lost classic."" Not only did La Motte boldly breach decorum in writing The Backwash of War, but she also forcefully challenged societal norms in other equally remarkable ways, as a debutante turned Johns Hopkins–trained nurse, pathbreaking public health advocate and administrator, suffragette, journalist, writer, lesbian, and self-proclaimed anarchist."

Full Product Details

Author:   Ellen N. La Motte ,  Cynthia Wachtell (Yeshiva University)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.318kg
ISBN:  

9781421426716

ISBN 10:   1421426714
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   02 April 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction Biography Chronology The Backwash of War: The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse Introduction to 1916 Edition Introduction to 1934 Edition Heroes La Patrie Reconnaissante The Hole in the Hedge Alone A Belgian Civilian The Interval Women and Wives Pour la Patrie Locomotor Ataxia A Surgical Triumph At the Telephone A Citation An Incident Esmeralda War Essays by Ellen N. La Motte An American Nurse in Paris Under Shell-Fire at Dunkirk A Joy Ride Significant Publications by Ellen N. La Motte Notes Index Illustrations follow page

Reviews

The most horrible war book ever written is The Backwash of War, by Miss Ellen La Motte, an American nurse who served with the French army. It is so bad that, when the United States entered the late war, it was suppressed by the department of justice. --H. L. Mencken It tells unsparingly all that there is to tell--all that has never been told before. [It is] a tremendous artistic achievement. --The Masses Ellen La Motte here shows us war... not magnificent and glorious, but naked and loathsome, as seen in an evacuation hospital. --Publishers Weekly Told in sharp, quick sentences--and relating events in a field hospital near the French lines... The Backwash of War literally breathes, or sobs, sincerity. --New York Times [La Motte] portrays with a frankness and realism that are painful the unheroic, the loathsome aspects of war as witnessed by an American nurse in a French field hospital. --Booklist A glance at any of Miss La Motte's articles will show that she has no illusions whatever concerning war. The scales have fallen from her eyes; she sees the struggle as Swift might have seen it. --The Atlantic Monthly In this volume [an] American hospital nurse lays bare some of the most hideous effects of the war as seen in an evacuation hospital a few miles behind the French lines. These sketches are far from pleasant reading, but they are absolutely truthful and accurate reports of what went on at the front. --The American Review of Reviews [La Motte] has rendered an invaluable service to mankind. The world must be prepared for peace, and the only way to accomplish this end is to expose the loathsome truths regarding modern warfare. --Issues and Events: American Liberal Review If we were to compile an anthology of the ten best war stories about eight of them would be listed under the name of Ellen N. La Motte and credited to The Backwash of War. --The Los Angeles Times It is a book in certain ways more remarkable than anything any American has written about the great conflict. In it a woman pictures the war she sees--the physical, mental, moral slime of it--with... frank, crusading ruthlessness. --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The most horrible war book ever written is The Backwash of War, by Miss Ellen La Motte, an American nurse who served with the French army. It is so bad that, when the United States entered the late war, it was suppressed by the department of justice. --H. L. Mencken It tells unsparingly all that there is to tell--all that has never been told before. [It is] a tremendous artistic achievement. --The Masses Ellen La Motte here shows us war... not magnificent and glorious, but naked and loathsome, as seen in an evacuation hospital. --Publishers Weekly Told in sharp, quick sentences--and relating events in a field hospital near the French lines... The Backwash of War literally breathes, or sobs, sincerity. --New York Times [La Motte] portrays with a frankness and realism that are painful the unheroic, the loathsome aspects of war as witnessed by an American nurse in a French field hospital. --Booklist A glance at any of Miss La Motte's articles will show that she has no illusions whatever concerning war. The scales have fallen from her eyes; she sees the struggle as Swift might have seen it. --The Atlantic Monthly In this volume [an] American hospital nurse lays bare some of the most hideous effects of the war as seen in an evacuation hospital a few miles behind the French lines. These sketches are far from pleasant reading, but they are absolutely truthful and accurate reports of what went on at the front. --The American Review of Reviews It is a book in certain ways more remarkable than anything any American has written about the great conflict. In it a woman pictures the war she sees--the physical, mental, moral slime of it--with... frank, crusading ruthlessness. --St. Louis Post-Dispatch [La Motte] has rendered an invaluable service to mankind. The world must be prepared for peace, and the only way to accomplish this end is to expose the loathsome truths regarding modern warfare. --Issues and Events: American Liberal Review If we were to compile an anthology of the ten best war stories about eight of them would be listed under the name of Ellen N. La Motte and credited to The Backwash of War. --The Los Angeles Times

The most horrible war book ever written is The Backwash of War, by Miss Ellen La Motte, an American nurse who served with the French army. It is so bad that, when the United States entered the late war, it was suppressed by the department of justice. --H. L. Mencken It tells unsparingly all that there is to tell--all that has never been told before. [It is] a tremendous artistic achievement. --The Masses Ellen La Motte here shows us war... not magnificent and glorious, but naked and loathsome, as seen in an evacuation hospital. --Publishers Weekly Told in sharp, quick sentences--and relating events in a field hospital near the French lines... The Backwash of War literally breathes, or sobs, sincerity. --New York Times [La Motte] portrays with a frankness and realism that are painful the unheroic, the loathsome aspects of war as witnessed by an American nurse in a French field hospital. --Booklist In this volume [an] American hospital nurse lays bare some of the most hideous effects of the war as seen in an evacuation hospital a few miles behind the French lines. These sketches are far from pleasant reading, but they are absolutely truthful and accurate reports of what went on at the front. --The American Review of Reviews [La Motte] has rendered an invaluable service to mankind. The world must be prepared for peace, and the only way to accomplish this end is to expose the loathsome truths regarding modern warfare. --Issues and Events: American Liberal Review If we were to compile an anthology of the ten best war stories about eight of them would be listed under the name of Ellen N. La Motte and credited to The Backwash of War. --The Los Angeles Times It is a book in certain ways more remarkable than anything any American has written about the great conflict. In it a woman pictures the war she sees--the physical, mental, moral slime of it--with... frank, crusading ruthlessness. --St. Louis Post-Dispatch A glance at any of Miss La Motte's articles will show that she has no illusions whatever concerning war. The scales have fallen from her eyes; she sees the struggle as Swift might have seen it. --The Atlantic Monthly

Author Information

Writer Ellen N. La Motte (1873–1961) graduated from the Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1902. During World War I, La Motte volunteered to nurse in Paris and then served in a field hospital at the Belgian front. She was the author of numerous books, including The Tuberculosis Nurse, Peking Dust, and The Opium Monopoly. Cynthia Wachtell is a research associate professor of American studies at Yeshiva University. She is the author of War No More: The Antiwar Impulse in American Literature, 1861–1914.

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