The Great War and Modern Memory

Paul Fussell (1924-2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, author, and university professor best known for his studies of World War I and II that exposed the gap between romantic myths and harsh realities of war, particularly in his seminal work The Great War and Modern Memory (1975), which won the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, and Ralph Waldo Emerson Award. A World War II veteran wounded in France, he taught at Rutgers and the University of Pennsylvania, authoring other notable books like Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (1983) and Wartime (1989). His works blend literary analysis, cultural critique, and personal wartime experience, earning him a fellowship in the Royal Society of Literature and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize.