Back from War

This piece is a response to Alison Howell’s Literary Review of Canada article “Afghanistan’s Price,” which appeared in the November 2011 issue.

A recent Literary Review of Canada essay by Dr. Alison Howell demonstrates a lack of historical insight too frequently seen in today’s universities. Although she invokes history at the end of her article, she does so in a token way that does not demonstrate what has been learned from rigorous scholarship.

The problem of the return of soldiers to civilian life is not a new one. Since the end of the Napoleonic wars (if not before) we have data on veterans. Many solutions were tried to help their sufferings. Pensions, albeit more or less discretionary, were, like today, considered too low. Hospices for indigent soldiers became state affairs in late 18th century on the model of the Invalides in Paris (a project started in 1670). The press reported numerous...