147 South African Journal of Military Studies Book Review Physical control, transformation and damage in the First World War: War bodies Simon Harold Walker London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic 2021, 238 pages ISBN 978-1-3501-2328-1 Nearly a century after the conclusion of the First World War of 1914–1918, the British military historian Ian FW Beckett expressively stated, “[h]istorians walk with ghosts.” 577 As an explanation, he descriptively noted, “[t]hey are privileged … to see what others do not as they tread the deserted banquet-hall of the past, endeavouring to repopulate it with those who have gone before and who might otherwise be forgotten.” 578 Most readers will agree that any literature on the subject of history is worth reading when historians succeed in transporting their audience along with them through their journey in the past together with the men and women who populated it. With the approaching and passing centenary of the First World War, a plethora of titles has appeared. This period also witnessed a departure from the more traditional ‘drum and trumpet’ and ‘history from above’ approach and a concomitant increase in writing ‘history from below’. As a result, numerous literary pieces have appeared using soldiers’ experiences as a lens on quotidian life on the battle front. 579 Such developments have opened new avenues for historians to explore, and a fresh set of ‘ghosts’ to ‘walk with’ as they travel through the past. In this process, thousands of previously, almost impersonal, commemoratively engraved, marbled and emboldened names on plaques, monuments and memorials are saved from obscurity. Accompanying this trend was also the use of various tools of analysis to explore a myriad of experiences from fresh angles. A handful of historians have opted not to disturb soldiers’ immortal souls beyond the veil but instead to revive their mortal corporeal forms in ink and on paper as they were a century ago. These historians therefore view experience from the perspective of men’s bodies. Among this rank and fle are individuals such as Joanna Bourke, Ana Carden-Coyne, Emily Mayhew, Jessica Meyer, Leo von Bergen, Paul Cornish, Nicholas J Saunders, Suzannah Biernof and others. All of them explored some aspect or aspects of the war or thereafter through the perspective of soldiers’ bodies. 580 This trend has gained ground and comprises books, journal articles and special issues, such as ‘The body at war: wounds, wounding and the wounded’ in the Journal of War and Culture Studies. 581 One of the latest additions to this collection of works is Simon H Walker’s book, Physical control, transformation and damage in the First World War. The book has its origins in Walker’s PhD dissertation completed Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 49, Nr 2, 2021. doi: 10.5787/49-2-1337