Well known as a scholar of early modern English history, Anthony Fletcher turns his attention to the experience of British soldiers in the First World War in Life, Death and Growing Up on the Western Front. Inspired by the wartime letters of his grandfather (Major Reggie Trench) to his grandmother (Clare) that he found in 1989, Fletcher's goal is to explore the personal stories that young soldiers told in their diaries and their correspondence to loved ones. His analysis is shaped by broader questions such as: How did young men create a personal identity as soldiers before they did so as working men at home, and how did they cope with competing identities of civilian and soldier? To that end, Fletcher examines the writings of seventeen men, including his grandfather and great-uncle, the majority of whom were officers and none of whom were conscripts. Fletcher observes that their personal writings during the conflict did not represent their role in the war as pointless, nor did their families think their sacrifice was in vain. Indeed, Fletcher argues that sacrifice was at the core of British patriotism during the conflict.

The book is divided into three sections. The first describes Britain's entry into the war and the patriotic idealism that swept that nation. Fletcher utilizes the personal stories of several officers to examine the cultural atmosphere of Victorian and Edwardian England that influenced the attitudes of young men in 1914. It is in this context that he argues the decision to go to war by enlisting was a wholly moral one because young men were so caught up in the excitement to volunteer and serve before the fight was over. The core of the book is part 2, which examines life at the front. To be sure, this is also the most complex part of the study because Fletcher attempts to employ a chronological and thematic approach, while telling the personal stories of all seventeen men. The themes include the importance of letters for morale, fear and shell shock, leadership and hierarchy, coping with loss, and maintaining discipline. A brief third section about remembrance and commemoration concludes the book. Fletcher discusses war memorials, the outlook of families whose loved ones had passed, and the attitudes of survivors—with particular emphasis on the men in this study.

Fletcher's methodology of examining the war experience only through personal writings is poignant, but not always effective. He successfully relates the experience of several officers in the study, especially Reggie Trench, Julian Grenfell, and Will Streets. He does so by letting their voices be heard through the correspondence, and these firsthand accounts are a primary strength of the book. Because different themes are addressed throughout the study, some “characters” become more significant than others. Not surprisingly, soldiers with more correspondence become better known throughout the narrative than those with less. At various points, the imperatives to discuss important themes and establish a sense of identity for each soldier seem to be at cross-purposes.

In a work such as this, narrowing the scope of sources is a daunting task. Fletcher's criteria for choosing soldiers included their close association with family, education, thoughtful reflection, and the degree to which they were explicit about their lives on the front and their emotional ups and downs. This could, of course, refer to multitudes of men. Relying primarily on officers' correspondence and those who enlisted prior to conscription allowed for a more pointed analysis. The majority of Fletcher's source analysis therefore comes from the upper and middle classes of British society. Considering that these groups provided the leadership for the British army, their stories are important. A considerable portion of part 2 discusses how these men provided leadership, cared for the tommies, and promoted discipline and morale throughout the army. The picture that emerges is one of officers who took seriously their duty to lead and care for their men and who did not express resentment for the war. Their letters home, and the expressions of grief from loved ones when they died, are filled with language regarding sacrifice, patriotism, and a higher cause. As Fletcher notes, these letters, some of which were later published, stand in marked contrast to the emerging public mood in the late 1920s that had begun to understand the war in terms of futility, squalor, and the obscenity of death. Well-educated upper- and middle-class officers, not unlike the ones studied by Fletcher, also shaped this understanding. The chief criticism of these sources is not that they stand in opposition to the likes of Sassoon and Graves but that they do not take into account the experience of the common soldier.

Life, Death and Growing Up on the Western Front provides readers with moving testimony about individual soldiers on the western front. Fletcher has brought to life their experiences of the war, eschewing the standard cultural memory of the western front as a senseless slaughter in which millions of men were needlessly marched to their deaths. He has populated the historical stage with the voices of the victims who never saw themselves as such. While the methodology of fitting individual biographical information into larger themes needs to be more refined, the work is a valuable addition to the growing body of scholarship regarding soldiers' lives on the western front.