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Rehabilitation and restoration: Orthopaedics and Disabled Soldiers in Germany and Britain in the First World War

Anderson, Julie, Perry, Heather R. (2014) Rehabilitation and restoration: Orthopaedics and Disabled Soldiers in Germany and Britain in the First World War. Medicine, Conflict and Survival, 30 (4). pp. 227-251. ISSN 1362-3699. E-ISSN 1743-9396. (doi:10.1080/13623699.2014.962724) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:54089)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13623699.2014.962724

Abstract

This article offers a comparative analysis of the evolution of orthopaedics and rehabilitation within German and British military medicine during the Great War. In it, we reveal how the field of orthopaedics became integral to military medicine by tracing the evolution of the discipline and its practitioners in each nation during the war. In doing so, however, we document not only when and why both medical specialists and military officials realized that maintaining their respective national fighting forces depended upon the efficient rehabilitation of wounded soldiers, but also how these rehabilitative practices and goals reflected the particularities of the military context, civilian society and social structure of each nation. Thus, while our comparison reveals a number of similarities in the orthopaedic developments within each nation as a response to the Great War, we also reveal significant national differences in war-time medical goals, rehabilitation treatments and soldierly ‘medical experiences’. Moreover, as we demonstrate, a social and cultural re-conceptualization of the disabled body accompanied the medical advancements developed for him; however, this re-conceptualization was not the same in each nation. Thus, what our article reveals is that although the guns of August fell silent in 1918, the war’s medical experiences lingered long thereafter shaping the future of disability medicine in both nations.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/13623699.2014.962724
Uncontrolled keywords: disability, rehabilitation, orthopaedics, military medicine, Germany, Great Britain
Subjects: D History General and Old World
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User: M.R.L. Hurst
Date Deposited: 10 Feb 2016 12:23 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 11:00 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/54089 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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