Crisis and Morale on the Western Front

Over a century ago, the First World War was also experienced as an unprecedented crisis, with communities and societies enduring the unimaginable hardships of a prolonged industrial conflict. In Belgium and France, the terrible destructive capacity of modern weaponry devastated the natural world and exposed previously held truths about military morale and tactics as falsehoods. 

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers suffered some of the worst conditions that soldiers have ever faced. Making Sense of the Great War asks how they survived, what their war experience meant to them, and how they perceived events and their surroundings.

The book contains numerous case studies of real lives and personal testimonies from the frontlines. It begins in early 1918 with the father of Bentley Bridgewater who was enduring another winter on the Western Front. Peace had become an ever more distant prospect. Yet, in his letters home, he crafted stories for his son in which he was able to escape the frontlines, won medals, mused on duty, killed the enemy, and had adventures with a cast of friends and anthropomorphised animals. Significantly, through these tales he remained resolutely hopeful that victory would eventually come.

Whilst the trenches of the Western Front have come to symbolise the futility and hopelessness of the Great War, Alex Mayhew shows that infantrymen such as Bridgewater rarely interpreted their experiences in this way. He highlights the profound significance of human hope in times of crisis. 

By delving into their letters and diaries, Making Sense of the Great War exposes the ways in which ordinary servicemen sought to survive, navigated and explored Belgium and France, and developed meaningful narratives about their military service. Some men embraced dreams and their own imaginations, others took solace and comfort in their comrades and family at home, while many immersed themselves in activities like gardening or sports.

Ultimately, Making Sense of the Great War reveals mechanisms that allow humans to cope with trauma, and the tools that make us so resilient even in the most horrific of circumstances.

Praise for the Book

'An outstanding book from one of the best of a new generation of First World War historians which sheds fresh light on how men survived and endured the horrors of modern war on the Western Front.'

Jonathan Boff, Professor of Military History, University of Birmingham

'Alex Mayhew offers a thoroughly researched and compelling insight into the world of combatant sense-making and survival. An impressive interdisciplinary history, it is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand what enabled men to keep going.'

Catriona Pennell, Professor of Modern History and Memory Studies, University of Exeter

‘Alex Mayhew meticulously reconstructs the distinctively English experience of the western front … A brilliant contribution to the cultural history of the Great War, his book casts light on human endurance in general.'

John Horne, Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College Dublin

‘Well researched and ably written, this book … underscores for readers and historians the relationships between crisis and morale – and the complex ways in which perception and perspective help shape events.’

Nicholas Sambaluk, Associate Professor, Air War College (US)

‘Those who want to know how and why English soldiers endured the Great War ought to read Making Sense of the Great War.’

Elizabeth Stice, Professor of History, Palm Beach Atlantic University (US)