Physical control, transformation and damage in the First World War: War bodies

Abstract

Nearly a century after the conclusion of the First World War of 1914–1918, the British
military historian Ian FW Beckett expressively stated, “[h]istorians walk with ghosts.”577
As an explanation, he descriptively noted, “[t]hey are privileged … to see what others do
not as they tread the deserted banquet-hall of the past, endeavouring to repopulate it with
those who have gone before and who might otherwise be forgotten.