Ebook {Epub PDF} Breakdown: The Crisis of Shell Shock on the Somme 1916 by Taylor Downing

The tragic fate of the Lonsdales forms one of the most telling subplots in Breakdown, the historian Taylor Downing's superb account of the military's response to the epidemic of shell shock Downing manages to offer a useful perspective by unpacking the pivotal role the cataclysm in the Somme played in the birth not just of military psychiatry, but a new era in our understanding of mental health/5(31). It is a shocking figure. Taylor Downing's revelatory new book follows units and individuals from signing up to the Pals Battalions of , through to the horrors of their experiences on the Somme which led to the shell shock that, unrelated to weakness or cowardice, left the men unable to continue fighting/5(9).  · 'Shell shock' - what we would now refer to as battle trauma - was sweeping the Western Front. By the beginning of August , nearly , British soldiers had been killed or wounded during the first month of fighting along the Somme. Another , would be Brand: Little, Brown Book Group.

Book review: Breakdown: The crisis of shell shock on the Somme, In 'Breakdown' Taylor Downing attempts to unpack the obfuscation surrounding the syndrome named shellshock in and post. Find items like Breakdown: The Crisis of Shell Shock on the Somme at Daedalus Books. As World War I unfolded, British medics were perplexed by the significant number of otherwise healthy men who were suffering from paralysis, stuttering, and temporary blindness or deafness. Then in July , with the disastrous start of the Battle of the Somme, these incidences of "shell shock"—what. Taylor Downing's revelatory new book follows units and individuals from signing up to the Pals Battalions of , through to the horrors of their experiences on the Somme which led to the shell shock that, unrelated to weakness or cowardice, left the men unable to continue fighting.

Then in July with the start of the Somme battle the incidence of shell shock rocketed. The high command of the British army began to panic. An increasingly large number of men seemed to have simply lost the will to fight. It is a shocking figure. Taylor Downing's revelatory new book follows units and individuals from signing up to the Pals Battalions of , through to the horrors of their experiences on the Somme which led to the shell shock that, unrelated to weakness or cowardice, left the men unable to continue fighting. One hundred years on from the Battle of the Somme, Breakdown tells the unusual and little-known story of shell shock in one of the bloodiest battles ever fought by the British army. About the Author Taylor Downing was educated at Cambridge University and is the author of The Cold War, Breakdown (about shell-shock in WWI), and Churchill's War Lab.