What did you do in the war, Daddy? That saying, taken from, of all things, the title of a 1966 comedy film, has become a kind of refrain for those who didn’t serve and are wrangling with their civvy inadequacies.
The young man who regrets having missed out on a war—how easy to do when you’re safe at home!—is a common type throughout history, right up there with the king done in by hubris and the monk who quietly saves civilization. Its most succinct expression is found in Brideshead Revisited, when Sebastian suddenly blurts out to Charles, “It’s rather sad to think that whatever happens you and I can never possibly get involved in a war.” The pair were too young to have made the cut for World War I, and Sebastian’s comment betrays both a trace of guilt...