The Backwash of War: The Classic Account of a First World War Field-Hospital

"War, superb as it is, is not necessarily a filtering process, by which men and nations may be purified. Well, there are many people to write you of the noble side, the heroic side, the exalted side. I must write you of what I have seen, the other side, the backwash." —Ellen La Motte, Volunteer Nurse, May 4, 1916  During World War One, Ellen La Motte became one of the first American war nurses to volunteer to go to Europe—and she witnessed its horrors firsthand as she worked near the Western front. Her controversial book, which the US banned in 1918, vividly and graphically describes the "backwash of war": the dirty, smelly, lice- and disease-ridden bodies of the wounded French soldiers she cared for. They compose the “human wreckage” of highly organized and industrialized warfare. Sometimes cynical, sometimes poignant, La Motte's observations retain a freshness that makes for compelling reading. Arranged into 14 vignettes depicting typical events and scenes, The Backwash of War paints a picture of that conflict that, sadly, still resonates powerfully today.

Ellen Newbold La Motte became one of the first American nurses to volunteer in Europe during World War One, serving in a field hospital In Belgium. The Backwash of War is based on a diary she kept during that time. Because of its graphic nature, US publishers refused to release it and the book was censored for years. In later years, La Motte traveled to Asia, where she wrote several books about the opium trade and addiction that were rampant at that time.