The Generation of 1914
Although so different in subject and approach, the originality and absorbing freshness with which this study is written creates something of the excitement which one felt when one discovered Edmund Wilson'sTo the Finland Stationor J. L. Lowes'sThe Road to Xanadu. It tells how, 'round about 1880, all over Europe and in Britain, the word 'generation' ceased to mean what it had done for centuries ... and came to mean 'youth' and its special values, energies, repudiations and abilities. According to the myth . . . this 'generation' had no sooner . . . shown itself full of a promise . . . than it got 'lost' in the Flanders mudbath prepared for it by wily old men (and women). Mr.  Wohl gives a tart synopsis of this romantic simplification, and provides us with an altogether nobler, often absurd and dangerous, and finally more enthralling scene. (The Listener)This is a work of broad and impeccable scholarship...Succinct, lucid, and superbly written, it is the best history to deal with the problem of generation...[Wohl's] talent for incisive portraiture is remarkable. (Robert RosenstoneNew Republic)A superb work of cultural history, a study of lives lived and sensibilities formed in the shadow of war and upheaval. (Fritz SternForeign Affairs2004-06-30)