The Great Adventure: Male Desire and the Coming of World War I

By Michael C.C. Adams

Book Overview

In 1914 Europe descended into a slaughter unlike anything that had been seen before. Yet, far from seeing the conflict as a tragedy, many men welcomed it as a healthy development for society, a relief from peace. The Great Adventure explores the intellectual trends that made war seem a natural and high expression of social values. This is not a book about the specific causes of World War I, but a study of the mood in which it could take place.

What the book uncovers is a complex of deeply ingrained attitudes about manhood, sex, power, maturity, boredom, and war that defined a culture in which war came to be seen as a positive option. Although the book focuses on attitudes in Great Britain and the United States of nearly a century ago, it makes a remarkably contemporary statement about men, women, and the culture of war., reviewing a previous edition or volume

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 025330136X
• ISBN13: 9780253301369
• Release Date: November 1990
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.5"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher