Review: An interesting historical piece
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 8, 2013
The main attraction of this short little book is its place in history.  Published in 1917, it is one of the period pieces that is meant to boost morale as the burdens of the First World War were becoming unbearable.This is a collection of writings and letters of a young soldier, edited by the founder of the YMCA.  The book shows how one Christian young man faced the challenges of a soldier in trench warfare.  It is probably not coincidental that the soldier also praises the YMCA to an extraordinary degree."One Young Man" does not exactly ignore the ugly reality of war, but it is meant, clearly, as a rah-rah book, intended to rally the home front.  Despite this, it does give an insight into the everyday life of a British soldier in the early days of the war.It is a short little book (I read it during an extended lunch break) that is well worth reading.  If nothing else, it illustrates a time when, in spite of great suffering, people were less apt to be as cynical as we are today.  In fact, I doubt that this book could have been produced even two years later without being scoffed at.