Minds at War The Poetry and Experience  of the First World War   Edited by David Roberts

410 pages  Paperback   9x6"  234x156mm Illustrated    ISBN 978 0 952 8969 0 6    £14-99 (UK)    Eighth Printing   Published by Saxon Books

Minds at War
The poetry and experience of the First World War

All the greatest war poems of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon ** and significant war poems by over seventy other notable poets. With a wealth of fascinating background material.

See also the shorter Out in the Dark, poetry of the First World War in Context and with basic notes - 190 pages.

Comments/reviews

A richly insightful and comprehensive anthology of First World War poetry - in all 250 poems by 80 poets.

The poems are presented in historical context with extracts from contemporary records, press reports and commentaries, poets’ letters, diaries and personal accounts. These deepen our understanding of the poets, their poetry and the changing attitudes of society during the First World War.

Together, the poetry and the prose extracts illuminate the experience and thinking of British people during the First World War.

This moving, fascinating and encyclopaedic volume includes:

• The great classic poems of the war by Owen, Sassoon, Brooke, Rosenberg, Sorley, Gurney, Thomas, Blunden, Binyon, McCrae, Grenfell, Seeger, Kipling, and others
• Poems by 26 women poets, and 40 other significant poets
• “Lost” verse that enjoyed extraordinary popularity
  during the First World War *
• Extracts from diaries, personal letters and accounts
• Pronouncements by the media, leading commentators and politicians of the day
• Poets and propaganda
• Historic photographs and cartoons
• Maps, biographies, glossary, bibliography, additional illustrations

* One poem, by John Oxenham, is reputed to have sold 8 million copies during the war
** Wilfred Owen (generally regarded as the greatest of all war poets writing in English), 26 poems, his best war poems on which his reputation is founded.
Siegfried Sassoon (unrivalled for his honest record of his changing views and feelings, a record spanning the entire war), 33 poems.

Both a resource book and fascinating read for everyone interested in the poetry, poets and experience of the First World War.

More comments/reviews

Libraries
An established key text for the war poetry section of every library that caters for students of literature and the general public.

Education
A greatly used and studied book at university level and pre-university level. An invaluable source book for poems and background information for teachers of war poetry and peace studies.
Valuable too for history students seeking to understand British society during the 1914-1918 war.

410 pages  Paperback   -    9x6"  234x156mm  -  Illustrated
  
ISBN 978 0 952 8969 0 6
  
£14-99 (UK)
  
Eighth Printing
 
Published by Saxon Books

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Comments/Reviews

"Read this compelling book cover to cover as a kind of novel or chronicle or dip into it as an anthology. You'll have the feeling of total immersion in the experience of the First World War." - Rex Andrews in The Friend.

"[With Out in the Dark,] Minds at War . . . puts many other First World War anthologies into the shade." - Gordon Hodgson, in National Association of Teachers of English web review on yahoo.co.uk

"Minds at War is no mere anthology but a comprehensive overview of the poetry and experience of the First World War. It includes the poets and poems one would expect to find plus a number of lesser practitioners and some outright surprises. David Roberts sets the poems and the poets' lives within a contextual commentary which keeps the story of the war moving forward and provides as many useful historic insights as poetic." - Peter Carter, The John Masefield Society Newsletter.

"I value this book: it's not only (uniquely) comprehensive, but enlightened and genuinely innovative in its integration of poetry with context." - Felicity Currie, author of Textwise study guides to English literature*, former assistant chief examiner in A level English Literature, university lecturer.

"Let me say how much I admire Minds at War. I am using it in a freshman  honors  course this semester—dealing with poetry, art & philosophy surrounding WW  -  and my students are devouring it faster than I can assign the readings. This is a great collection, and heartbreakingly relevant to the US wars in Iraq & Afghanistan."  -  Thomas H Crofts, Assistant Professor of English, East Tennessee State University.

"Remarkable 412 page volume of the poetry and experiences of World War I. . . [Includes] hitherto neglected women, such as Vera Brittain, Rose Macaulay and Eleanor Farjeon. . . enhanced by intelligent detailed historical and biographical background material. . . Prose extracts include passages by Churchill, Haig, H G Wells, Arnold Bennett, Shaw, Bertrand Russell, Vera Brittain. Absorbing . . . stimulating . . . Do buy it," - Ronald Mallone, Day by Day.

"I use David Roberts’ excellent anthologies [Minds at War and Out in the Dark] with all my English Literature classes.
The poems and extracts are very well chosen. There are excellent explanatory notes that help all readers to enter the cultural and social world of the Great War. They are especially useful for GCSE. I recommend them highly. 
There are not just poems, but moving and descriptive extracts from contemporary letters and diaries, that will appeal to all students, of all levels and ages, - especially me! I have learned a great deal from these anthologies. I wish they had been around when I was young.
They [Minds at War and Out in the Dark] are really quite the best anthologies of this nature I have ever come across. All my favourites were in both, which does not often happen."
Michael Brett, Head of English and Drama, Homefield School, Surrey.

"Minds at War and Out in the Dark arrived the day after our phone discussion. As I begin to familiarise myself with them I continue to be impressed by the blend of poems famous and others not well-known but illuminating, and the inclusion of citations from politicians, newspapers, etc, that will save hours of classroom explanation."  -  Christopher Armitage
Bowman and Gordon Gray Professor of English, Adjunct Professor of Peace, War and Defense, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

* A Textwise guide to the poetry of the First World War was published in 2003. It consists of 48 A4 spiral bound, photocopiable pages of in depth analysis of poetry by 12 First World War poets. The pages are packed with sharp insights and written with an infectious passion for the subject. They cannot fail to enlighten and inspire students.
More information is available from The Critical Forum, 10 West Street, Buckingham MK18 1HL  or visit their web site: www.thecriticalforum.co.uk

Minds at War is available from terrestrial and internet booksellers, worldwide.

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