The impact of World War II upon English society is both a contextual feature and an overtly expressed concern of Men at Arms. The background of the novel is a constantly changing panorama of people in motion, as city residents flee to the country, coastal dwellers are evacuated inland, and military men are shifted from training areas to potential battlegrounds. In the midst of this pattern of changing scenes, which alternates moments of complete chaos with long periods of anxious inactivity, it seems perfectly natural for the book's characters to speculate about the ultimate consequences of these developments; and if there is little consensus as to the specifics of what will result, there is general agreement regarding the greater democratization that will occur as almost every segment of society becomes involved in this life-and-death struggle between nations.

These sweeping transformations are observed in sharper focus in...