Weary Road
Subtitle: Shell Shock in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 504
ISBN-13: 9781442644717
Subjects: Canada, canadian army; Soldiers
Description: More than 16,000 Canadian soldiers suffered from shell shock during the Great War of 1914 to 1918. Despite significant interest from historians, we still know relatively little about how it was experienced, diagnosed, treated, and managed in the frontline trenches in the Canadian and British forces. How did soldiers relate to suffering comrades? Did large numbers of shell shock cases affect the outcome of important battles? Was frontline psychiatric treatment as effective as many experts claimed after the war? Were Canadians treated any differently than other Commonwealth soldiers? A Weary Road is the first comprehensive study to address these important questions. Author Mark Osborne Humphries uses research from Canadian, British and Australian archives, including hundreds of newly available hospital records and patient medical files, to provide a history of war trauma as it was experienced, treated and managed by ordinary soldiers.