London faced one of its deadliest disasters—the Great Plague. The bubonic plague, carried by rats and fleas, spread rapidly through the city, killing tens of thousands.

Paul Fussell’s 50-year-old survey of trench warfare deserves a new generation of readers, our book critic writes.

Ceasefire,” his most famous poem, invoked the “Iliad” in exploring his country’s sectarian strife. But his work wasn’t ...