The Book Prize Index

The Great War and Modern Memory

Paul Fussell

In this classic work, Paul Fussell illuminates the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, focusing primarily on the literary means by which The Great War has been remembered, conventionalized, and mythologized. Drawing on the work of important wartime poets such as David Jones and Wilfred Owen, on the memoirs of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Edmund Blunden, and on numerous other personal records housed in the Imperial War Museum, this award-winning volume provides an intimate and intensely poetic account of the event that revolutionized the way we see the world. It has been hailed as "humanly wise and compassionate" (Saturday Review), "original and brilliant" (Lionel Trilling), "bright and sensitive" (The New Yorker), and "probing, sympathetic, and illuminating" (The New Republic). It is an undisputed classic of cultural criticism.

War & MilitaryWar & Military · high confidenceWar & Military81 signalsLlm Classifier: War & Military -> War & MilitaryOpen Library: World War, 1914-1918 -> War & MilitaryOpen Library: War and literature -> War & MilitaryWorld War IISoldiers, Veterans & Combat ExperienceWorld War I

Award History

3 wins · 3 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
National Book Award for NonfictionMajor1976Co-winnerSecondary source
National Book Critics Circle Award for CriticismMajor1975WinnerSecondary source
Phi Beta Kappa Book Awards: Ralph Waldo Emerson Award1976WinnerOfficial source
View all award history (3)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • David Jones45%
    • Wilfred Owen45%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Western Front50%
    • Imperial War Museum38%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    Focusing on British soldiers on the Western Front, the book argues that the Great War was remembered by literary means that conventionalized and mythologized the event.

    Model confidence 72%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    65 / 100 academic

    Academic

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 71%.