Much has been written about the so-called war to end all wars. Voluminous pages exist documenting historical, geopolitical, even clinical aspects of World War I. Authors and film directors from Hemingway to Kubric have plumbed the war’s romantic and psychological depths. However, it is Dr. Wilcox's contention that a gap still exists. It's a gap he attempts to fill by examining the spaces in which the war was really fought: the muddy, claustrophobic spaces between the walls of the trenches, the hellish No Man’s Land between the warring armies, and the increasingly vulnerable chasms between the minds, hearts, and veracity of the soldiers themselves.

Through extensive use of trench newspapers, diaries, memoirs, letters, and more, all scrupulously footnoted, Dr. Wilcox explores how mechanized warfare and advanced technology actually took the world back in time to a level of mass savagery theretofore unimaginable. He analyzes the mental and physical toll taken on men living in virtual communal graves beneath the earth, fighting unseen enemies across nightmarish landscapes Milton and Dante had imagined, but Pétain and von Hindenburg made real.

The author uses a decidedly phenomenological approach to construct his narrative, eschewing assumption and philosophy for detailed descriptions of experience and behavior. He then connects the dots between seemingly disparate aspects of military strategy, cultural practices, and linguistic analysis to, as he says, “locate the intersection of violence and the space in which that violence occurred along the Western Front.”

Dr. Wilcox’s descent into the great war's trenches is not light reading, but it is a uniquely rewarding experience for those sincerely interested in war and its effects on the human beings who take part in it.

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