In 1915 Vera Brittain abandoned her studies at Oxford to enlist as a nurse in the armed services. She served in a number of World War theaters--in London, Malta, and at the Western Front in France. By war"s end, all those closest to her were dead, and she had witnessed the results of modern combat, the destruction and the suffering. Focusing on the men and women who came of age as war broke out, Brittain explores their politics, their hopes and their fatal idealism. Acclaimed by The Times Literary Supplement as a book that helped "both form and define the mood of its time," this searing portrait is also a testament to every generation irrevocably changed by war.