The Medical War

The Medical War describes the role of medicine in the British Army during the First World War. Mark Harrison argues that medicine played a vital part in the war, helping to sustain the morale of troops and their families, and reducing the wastage of manpower. Effective medical provisions were vital to the continuation of the war in all the major theatres, for both political and operational reasons. The Medical War is divided more or less evenly between an analysis of medicine on the Western Front and selected campaigns in other theatres of the war, principally Mesopotamia, Gallipoli, Salonika, East Africa, and the Middle East. It explores preventive medicine and casualty disposal and treatment, attempting to view these not only from the perspective of medical personnel but also from that of commanders, patients, politicians, and the general public. In providing this wide-ranging geographical and thematic coverage of medicine, The Medical War is unique among books on medicine in the First World War. It also differs from existing work in considering the British Army's medical responsibilities for non-British troops and labourers, principally those of the Indian Army and various colonial labour detachments. Parallel study of the author's award-winning study of British military medicine in the Second World War (Templer Medal Book Prize, 2005) The first book on medicine in the First World War to provide wide-ranging geographical and thematic coverage of medicine Considers the British Army's medical responsibilities for non-British troops and labourers, principally those of the Indian Army and various colonial labour detachments Mark Harrison , Professor of the History of Medicine and Director of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford Introduction 1: Building the medical machine: the Western Front, 1914 - June 1916 2: The machine in motion: the Western Front, July 1916 - November 1918 3: War, health, and citizenship: preventive medicine on the Western Front 4: Gallipoli: the failure of command 5: 'Wonder and pain': Mesopotamia, November 1914 - May 1916 6: War against nature: malaria in Salonika, East Africa, and the Middle East 7: Military medicine in transition: Mesopotamia, June 1916 - November 1918 Conclusion Bibliography