The politics of wounds : military patients and medical power in the First World War / Ana Carden-Coyne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carden-Coyne, Ana, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1914-1918--Medical care--Great Britain.

World War, 1914-1918.

Medicine, Military--Great Britain--Histor--20th century.

Medicine, Military.

Physicians--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Physicians.

World War, 1914-1918--Personal narratives, British.

Military pensions--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Military pensions.

Great Britain. Army--Medical care--History--20th century.

Great Britain.

United Kingdom.

World War (1914-1918).

Medical Subjects:

United Kingdom.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (397 p.)

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book explores military patients' experiences of frontline medical evacuation, war surgery, and the social world of military hospitals during the First World War. The proximity of the front and the colossal numbers of wounded created greater public awareness of the impact of the war than had been seen in previous conflicts, with serious political consequences. Frequently referred to as 'our wounded', the central place of the soldier in society, as a symbol of the war's shifting meaning, drew contradictory responses of compassion, heroism, and censure. Wounds also stirred romantic and sexual responses. This volume reveals the paradoxical situation of the increasing political demand levied on citizen soldiers concurrent with the rise in medical humanitarianism and war-related charitable voluntarism. The physical gestures and poignant sounds of the suffering men reached across the classes, giving rise to convictions about patient rights, which at times conflicted with the military's pragmatism. Why, then, did patients represent military medicine, doctors and nurses in a negative light? This book listens to the voices of wounded soldiers, placing their personal experience of pain within the social, cultural, and political contexts of military medical institutions. The author reveals how the wounded and disabled found culturally creative ways to express their pain, negotiate power relations, manage systemic tensions, and enact forms of 'soft resistance' against the societal and military expectations of masculinity when confronted by men in pain. The volume concludes by considering the way the state ascribed social and economic values on the body parts of disabled soldiers though the pension system.

Contents:

""Cover""; ""The Politics of Wounds: Military Patients and Medical Power in the First World War""; ""Copyright""; ""Dedication""; ""Acknowledgements""; ""Contents""; ""List of Illustrations""; ""List of Acronyms and Initialisms""; ""Introduction: Wounded Politics Military Patients in History""; ""MILITARIZED BODIES AND MEDICAL POWER IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR""; ""STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS""; ""1: Men in Pain: Triage, Transport, and the War Machine""; ""CIVILIANIZING MILITARY MEDICINE: HUMANITARIANS, TRIAGE, AND THE WAR MACHINE""; ""THE POLITICS OF MEDICAL EVACUATION: DELAY AND DISORGANIZATION""

""Painless or painful? Hospital trains and ambulances""""Mobile medicine and the impact on expertise""; ""When the doctor became the patient: Captain Gibbon�s story""; ""Gallipoli and Mesopotamia: administrative histories and witnessing pain""; ""MEDICAL PROPAGANDA AND TECHNOLOGY""; ""PAINFUL TRANSPORT AND THE PROBLEM WITH SPEED""; ""TRIAGE: PATIENTS� AND DOCTORS� EXPERIENCES""; ""BUREAUCRATIZING WOUNDS: �PLEASURE AND PAIN� IN THE SURGICAL ASSEMBLY LINE""; ""ROTATING PATIENTS THROUGH THE MEDICAL WAR MACHINE""; ""CONCLUSION""; ""2: Surgical Wars: Wounds, Experiments, and Ethics""

""EXPERIMENTATION AND ETHICS""""Inexperienced surgeons and amputation scandals""; ""Public enemies: politicizing gas gangrene and tetanus""; ""Antiseptic agonies and surgical conflict""; ""PAINFUL CHEMICALS AND DISSENTING VOICES""; ""RENEWING DEBRIDEMENT AND HEALING TREATMENTS""; ""THE INTER-ALLIED SURGICAL CONFERENCE 1917 AND ITS AFTERMATH""; ""CONCLUSION""; ""3: Transformations in the �Theatre of Dreams�: Resuscitation, Anaesthetics, Opportunity, and Patient Agency""; ""TRANSFORMING LIFE: FROM MORIBUND TO RESUSCITATION PATIENTS""

""ANAESTHESIA AND PAIN RELIEF: MORTALITY AND PATIENT PERSPECTIVES""""On coming round in the �theatre of dreams�""; ""SURGEONS� DREAMS AND THE INHUMANITY OF WAR""; ""MOCKING THE SURGEON: THE PATIENT STRIKES BACK""; ""CONCLUSION""; ""4: Provocative Wounds: Sociality and Intimacy in War Hospitals""; ""THE MILITARY HOSPITAL: AN IMPERIAL FAMILY HOME?""; ""Hospital blues: discipline and identity""; ""INSIDE THE WARD CULTURES: THE PLEASURES AND DANGERS OF WOUNDS""; ""�Promiscuous visitors� to the �exhibitionary forces�""; ""The pleasure of wounds: telling tall tales""

""Malingering performances""""The social value of wounds""; ""PAINFUL BODIES AND SEXUAL COMMUNITIES""; ""Touching, healing, and feminine fantasy""; ""QUEER CARNIVAL AND INTIMATE FRIENDSHIPS""; ""SENSORY TRAUMA AND FEMINIZED THERAPIES:GENDERING REHABILITATION""; ""NURSE ETHEL AND CORPORAL CHARLES: A HOSPITAL ROMANCE""; ""CONCLUSION""; ""5: Silent Wounds: Coercion, Brutality, and Resistance in War Hospitals""; ""COMPULSORY CHEERFULNESS AND THE MYTH OF THE �HAPPY HOSPITAL�""; ""GENDERING �BRUTAL METHODS� : DISCIPLINE, SEXUALITY, AND RESISTANCE""; ""DISCIPLINE AND DISTRUST""

""Malingering detection and the construction of true/false pain""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-367) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-166734-X

OCLC:

896862003