This text relates the literature and the art of World War I to the literature and art of World War II. It also aims to examine the range of war poetry and fiction in English in its relation to German, French, Italian and, to a lesser extent, Russian, Danish and Hungarian. Before World War I, few authors wrote about, or had experienced, war. War was not a proper subject for literature; while writers seldom served in the armed forces and were almost never in battle. This work discusses what sort of people, in various physical and psychological conditions wrote about war; or painted it; how they handled the challenge of describing their experiences; what literary and artistic techniques they employed; how other forms of creative talent were fostered by the war; and how far memoirs of the war prepared the way for the next one. In the second section, the account of World War II provides a contribution to an understanding of how literature and art relate to the psychological and social structures of the communities within which they are produced.