ABSTRACT
During wartime, physicians forged an alliance with an institution immeasurably more powerful than equivalent allies within schools, factories, and local authorities and, as a consequence, they shifted their attention from infants, young children, and the poor towards healthy, young men of every social class. In this chapter, the subjective experiences of these men are given equal weight to that of medical officers. The comment of one doctor is instructive of the unique decisions medical officers were often forced to make during wartime. Increased medical specialization during wartime dramatically reduced long-term care and attention to individual needs. During wartime, men had the strongest of motives for exaggerating fear and ill-health. The benefits bestowed by medical 'advances' resulting directly from military requirements have been exaggerated, and the impetus provided by the wartime centralized medical service for socialized medicine after the wars ignores basic differences between military and civilian contexts.
