Bugs and Bullets

Bugs and Bullets is the memoir of Joseph Breckinridge-Bayne, a brave American doctor who spent two years combating disease and epidemics and dealing with the horrors of war from behind enemy lines on the Eastern Front. Bayne worked at a military hospital in Bucharest, then took his services to villages ravaged by disease and hunger outside the capital. After the war, he returned to Romania with the Red Cross to help to reign in the typhoid epidemic. Bayne’s memoir provides a unique account of life in Romania during the First World War. Edited and enhanced by an introduction to the author’s life and work by Ernest H. Latham, Jr., Bugs and Bullets is essential reading for anyone interested in medical conditions during World War I and life on the Eastern Front. As a foreign observer, he also provides a unique glimpse into life in Romanian villages during the war and creates an insightful portrait of the land and its people. This edition of Bugs and Bullets, published to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War, is edited and enhanced by a thorough introductory study on the author’s life and work by Dr. Ernest H. Latham, Jr., former cultural attaché at the American Embassy in Bucharest. Dr. Latham is a well-known specialist in Romanian history and has written the only biography of Dr. Bayne, entitled What Strange Fate. Bugs and Bullets is essential reading for anyone interested in medical conditions during World War I and life on the Eastern Front during this dramatic period in history. It also provides a valuable look at life in the country on the eve of the creation of modern Romania.