From the moment war broke out across Europe in 1914, the world entered a new, unparalleled era of modern warfare. Within the first four months of the war, the British Army recorded the nervous collapse of ten percent of its officers. In his new book Soldiers Don’t Go Mad, New America International Security Program Fellow Charles Glass draws upon rich source materials from World War One and his own deep understanding of trauma and war to tell the story of the soldiers and doctors who struggled with the effects of industrial warfare on the human psyche. Told through the lens of two soldier-poets during World War One, Soldiers Don’t Go Mad investigates the roots of what we now know as post-traumatic stress disorder. In doing so, Glass brings historical bearing to questions of how war affects mental health and how creative work can help people come to terms with even the darkest of times.

Join New America’s International Security Program for a discussion with Charles Glass, author of Soldiers Don’t Go Mad: A Story of Brotherhood, Poetry, and Mental Illness During the First World War. Glass is a fellow with New America’s International Security program and a writer, journalist, broadcaster and publisher, who has written on conflict in the Middle East, Africa and Europe for the past forty-five years.

Join the conversation online using #SoldiersDontGoMad and following @NewAmericaISP.

Participant:

Charles Glass
Author, Soldiers Don’t Go Mad
Fellow, New America International Security Program

Moderator:

Peter Bergen, @peterbergencnn
Vice President, New America
Co-Director, Center on the Future of War, ASU
Professor of Practice, ASU