This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe then nothing else mattered-not the millions of dead bodies nor the thousands of ruined lives?. This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking violent terrifying horrible uncompromising brutal remorseless and gruesome...but so is war.
Johnny Got His Gun holds a place as one of the classic antiwar novels. First published in 1939 Dalton Trumbo's story of a young American soldier terribly maimed in World War I-he 'survives' armless legless and faceless but with his mind intact-was an immediate bestseller. This fiercely moving novel was a rallying point for many Americans who came of age during World War II and it became perhaps the most popular novel of protest during the Vietnam era.
