This special issue of Mosaic provides a predominantly twentieth-century focus, examining a wide range of literary texts that contemplate pre-, mid-, and post-war matters. The essays in this issue address many of the nineteenth-century wars that involved Western nations: WWI and WWII, the Falklands War, the Viet Nam War. These essays examine topics and themes such as women and war, the individual psyche, life-writing, military discourse, racism, and recuperation.