The Backwash of War

In editing the new scholarly edition of Backwash, Wachtell added illuminating introductory and biographical essays robustly researched from primary sources; a bibliography; timeline; photographs; and three wartime essays by La Motte … More than a century after its appearance, Backwash remains a truth bomb.—Rosemary Hutzler Raun, Johns Hopkins MagazineThe Wachtell edition - a fascinating mix of history, literature and women’s studies - is a very important piece of scholarship, deserving of a wide audience … When one thinks of literary classics of WWI, Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and perhaps E.E. Cummings’ The Enormous Room usually come to mind … And now there’s this one, The Backwash of War: An Extraordinary American Nurse in World War I, which came before any of those others … My congratulations to Dr. Wachtell. My highest recommendation.—Tim Bazzett, Library ThingThe most comprehensive and authoritative edition of a classic … The editor’s exhaustive research has resulted in a rounded, impressive and sympathetic portrait of a fascinating woman who was a great humanitarian and whose claim to fame is not confined to The Backwash of War. The book should be compulsory reading for anyone considering joining the military and also their dearest and nearest.—Peter van den Dungen, Bertha von Suttner Peace Institute, The Hague, Medicine, Conflict and Survival

Writer Ellen N. La Motte (1873–1961) graduated from the Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1902. During World War I, La Motte volunteered to nurse in Paris and then served in a field hospital at the Belgian front. She was the author of numerous books, including The Tuberculosis Nurse, Peking Dust, and The Opium Monopoly. Cynthia Wachtell is a research associate professor of American studies at Yeshiva University. She is the author of War No More: The Antiwar Impulse in American Literature, 1861–1914.