Ellen N. La Motte's Books

The Backwash of War

An Extraordinary American Nurse in World War I

By: Ellen N. La Motte

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The Backwash of War

An Extraordinary American Nurse in World War I

By: Ellen N. La Motte

Banned in multiple countries for its frank depiction of the horrors of war, Ellen N. La Motte's The Backwash of War is one of the most stunning antiwar books ever published. "We are witnessing a phase in the evolution of humanity, a phase called War—and the slow, onward progress stirs up the slime in the shallows, and this is the Backwash of War. It is very ugly."—Ellen N. La Motte In September 1916, as World War I advanced into a third deadly year, an American woman named Ellen N. La Motte published a collection of stories about her experience as a war nurse. Deemed damaging to morale, The Backwash of War was immediately banned in both England and France and later censored in wartime America. At once deeply unsettling and darkly humorous, this compelling book presents a unique view of the destruction wrought by war to the human body and spirit. Long neglected, it is an astounding book by an extraordinary woman and merits a place among major works of WWI literature. This volume gathers, for the first time, La Motte's published writing about the First World War. In addition to Backwash, it includes three long-forgotten essays. Annotated for a modern audience, the book features both a comprehensive introduction to La Motte's war-time writing in its historical and literary contexts and the first extended biography of the "lost" author of this "lost classic." Not only did La Motte boldly breach decorum in writing The Backwash of War, but she also forcefully challenged societal norms in other equally remarkable ways, as a debutante turned Johns Hopkins–trained nurse, pathbreaking public health advocate and administrator, suffragette, journalist, writer, lesbian, and self-proclaimed anarchist.

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Page Count

259

Publisher

JHU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1421426722

ISBN 13

9781421426723

The Backwash of War

By: Ellen N. La Motte

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The Backwash of War

By: Ellen N. La Motte

Ellen LaMotte (1873 - 1961) was an American nurse, journalist and author. She began her nursing career as a tuberculosis nurse in Baltimore and then served as an army nurse in Europe during World War I. After that she traveled to Asia where she saw the effects of opium addiction. The Backwash of War (1934) was based on her diaries kept during her time at the front. La Motte speaks of her time in an army hospital in France as periods of boredom interspersed with moments of fright. The Backwash of War is an excellent memoir of war from the viewpoint of a woman army nurse.

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Book Jungle

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ISBN 10

1438532261

ISBN 13

9781438532264

The Backwash of War - The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse (WWI Centenary Series)

By: Ellen Newbold Lamotte

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The Backwash of War - The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse (WWI Centenary Series)

By: Ellen Newbold Lamotte

After this war, there will be many other wars, and in the intervals there will be peace. So it will alternate for many generations. By examining the things cast up in the backwash, we can gauge the progress of humanity. When clean little lives, when clean little souls boil up in the backwash, they will consolidate, after the final war, into a peace that shall endure. But not till then."" This book is part of the World War One Centenary series; creating, collating and reprinting new and old works of poetry, fiction, autobiography and analysis. The series forms a commemorative tribute to mark the passing of one of the world's bloodiest wars, offering new perspectives on this tragic yet fascinating period of human history. Each publication also includes brand new introductory essays and a timeline to help the reader place the work in its historical context.

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Page Count

144

Published Date

ISBN 10

1473313899

ISBN 13

9781473313897

Book's by Ellen N. La Motte

The Backwash of War

The Backwash of War

The Backwash of War

The Backwash of War

The Backwash of War - The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse (WWI Centenary Series)

The Backwash of War - The Human Wreckage of the Battlefield as Witnessed by an American Hospital Nurse (WWI Centenary Series)

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