Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Recycling the disabled: Army, medicine, and modernity in WWI Germany examines the 'medical organisation' of Imperial Germany for total war. Faced with mounting casualties and a growing labour shortage, German military, industrial, and governmental officials turned to medical experts for assistance in the total mobilisation of society. Through an investigation of developments in orthopaedic medicine, prosthetic technology, military medical organisation and the cultural history of disability, Heather Perry reveals how the pressures of modern industrial warfare not only transformed medical ideas and treatments for injured soldiers, but also transformed social and cultural expectations of the disabled body - expectations that long outlasted the war.
This book is ideal for scholars and students interested in war, medicine, disability, science and technology, and modern Germany.
Synopsis
This book is a critical examination of the relationships between war, medicine, and the pressures of modernisation in the waning stages of the German Empire. Through her examination of wartime medical and scientific innovations, government, and military archives, museum and health exhibitions, philanthropic works, consumer culture, and popular media, historian Heather Perry reveals how the pressures of modern industrial warfare did more than simply transform medical care for injured soldiers - they fundamentally re-shaped how Germans perceived the disabled body. As the empire faced an ever more desperate labour shortage, military, and government leaders increasingly turned to medical authorities for assistance in the re-organisation of German society for total war. Thus, more than a simple history of military medicine or veteran care, Recycling the disabled tells the story of the medicalisation of modern warfare in Imperial Germany and the lasting consequences of this shift in German society.
This book is ideally suited for scholars and students of the cultural history of modern war, the social history of medicine, the history of disability, the cultural history of technology, and the history of modern Germany. It could also be used in courses in disability studies, science technology and society, military studies, medical ethics, and body studies.
Synopsis
Examines the "medical organisation" of Imperial Germany for total war