Books

World War I: The War to End All Wars (American War S.)
World War II in the Pacific: Remember Pearl Harbor (American War S.)
World War II in Europe: America Goes to War (American War S.)
Korean War: The Forgotten War (American War S.)
Vietnam War: What are We Fighting for? (American War S.)
Persian Gulf War: The Mother of All Battles (American War S.)
Apollo 11: First Moon Landing (Countdown to Space S.)
Friendship 7: First American in Orbit (Countdown to Space S.)
Vostok 1: First Human in Space (Countdown to Space S.)
Apollo 13: Space Emergency (Countdown to Space S.)
Columbia: First Flight of the Space Shuttle (Countdown to Space S.)
A Very Great Profession: Woman's Novel, 1914-39 (Virago Classic Non-fiction)
Before I Go
Challenger: America's Space Tragedy (Countdown to Space S.)
Bandlet of Righteousness: Ethiopian Book of the Dead
The Profession and Practice of Medieval Canon Law (Variorum Collected Studies)
Warfare Under the Anglo-Norman Kings, 1066-1135
Genocide: The Systematic Killing of a People (Issues in Focus S.)
New Enterprise in the South Pacific: The Indonesian and Melanesi an Experiences
Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism
Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First
Religion in the History of the Medieval West (Variorum Collected Studies)
Vision for America
Best of Burke, The: Selected Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke
Greater Britain, 1516-1776: Essays in Atlantic History (Variorum Collected Studies)

The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War I: Over 280 First-Hand Accounts of the "War to End All Wars"

Average customer rating:

good book on a bad time

The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War I: Over 280 First-Hand Accounts of the "War to End All Wars"

Manufacturer: Carroll & Graf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

World War I | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II
Forgotten Voices of the Great War: A History of World War I in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There
The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War
Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin, 1914-1919
The First World War

ASIN: 0786712880

Book Description

The Great War haunts the world still. It slaughtered a generation of young men; claimed limbs, wounded souls; drenched battlefields in blood; made sad legends of the Western Front, Gallipoli, and Jutland, and made heroes of poets; farmers, and factory workers. Clerks it made into Tommies, doughboys, or the Hun. And in this new Mammoth volume the voices of such eyewitnesses to history as these are heard again. So are the words of generals, statesmen, and kings. From the trenches in Flanders to the staff rooms of the Imperial German Army, with the Land Girls in England and U-boat crews in the Atlantic, alongside T. E. Lawrence in Arabia's desert and the Red Baron in the air-with a variety of extracts from letters, speeches, memoirs, diaries, and dispatches, this gripping collection covers each year and every facet of World War I. Among its wide range of witnesses are King George V, Robert Graves, Leon Trotsky, Erwin Rommel, Ernst Junger, Ernest Hemingway, American aviator Eddie Rickenbacker; and Winston S. Churchill. The pieces in this volume compose a stirring human drama of the conflict that redrew the map of the modern world and determined the political course of the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

good book on a bad time.......2005-12-14

One can read many books covering the campaigns and personalities of World War I and still come away with an incomplete picture of what the war was really about. The strategies, the national goals of the participants, and the political fallout - ushering in the destruction of empires that had lasted for hundreds of years, Bolshevism, fascism and Naziism, with all that was to come out of that - are all obviously important, but they do not reach down far enough into the basic and elemental experience of the common soldier in the field.

Jon E. Lewis has done a commendable job of editing over 180 first hand accounts of what the war was like, almost all of the pieces being written by average men and women who participated on every level of the conflict. The most poignant are from letters home, diary entries, and reminisces after the fact, coming from soldiers, nurses, and low-level commanders, telling of the hell of the trenches, the disease, the constant and maddening shelling, and the death, dismemberment, and maiming all around. The picture that arises out of the constant repitition of one account after another, is senseless, sickening, wasteful and pointless tragedy.

There are also excerpts of better-known memoires, particularly from Churchill, TE Lawrence, Foch, and finally, in a 33-page indulgence at the very end of the book, from Douglas Haig. Coming after 450 pages of slaughter and annihilation, so much of it caused by stupid and unimaginative "leadership" by such as Haig, this final summary of lessons learned and recap of the war effort as led by himself is enough to sicken one. It remains a mystery why this man was not lynched by his own soldiers.

The heros of the book are the average soldier in the field, bearing the brunt of the savagery day after day, dealing with conditions no animal could survive in, regardless of which side of the conflict they were on. For Lewis, there is essentially no difference in the experiences of a French vs a German vs an English vs a Russian soldier. Lewis does not deal in politics or assigning 'blame' to anyone, but rather deals at the micro level with the plight of everyman. The impact is crushing. One comes away from the book with a full and complete understanding of the old saying about the British army, 'lions led by donkeys.'

It's a powerful book and well worth the time invested. Lewis' spare editing and insightful though brief comments add to the wealth of material presented here as well, and overall has done an impressive job.

The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I

Average customer rating:

More about politics than about the war itself
Great History of US Role in WW 1
A book only a historian of organization could love
A Scholarly and Brilliantly Written Tour de Force!
An excellent account of the US in World War I

The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I
Edward M. Coffman
Manufacturer: University Press of Kentucky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

World War I | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950 (Texas a & M University Military History Series)
America's First Battles, 1776-1965
The Philippine War, 1899-1902 (Modern War Studies)
Challenge of Command (West Point Military History Series)
American Soldiers: Ground Combat in the World Wars, Korea, And Vietnam (Modern War Studies)

ASIN: 0813109558

Customer Reviews:

More about politics than about the war itself.......2007-02-02

World War I is a difficult war to understand, and it's almost as if it gets even more and more difficult the more one reads about it. It's without a doubt my favorite war (because yes, of course one can have such a thing as a favorite war), but it's also the one war that I just cannot seem to come to terms with, really. Perhaps especially because of the way the war was fought; the freakishly large number of men who were sacrificed when they advanced over open terrain against vicious machinegun nests, got exposed to menacing gas attacks in their trenches, or were blown to bloody pieces during enormous artillery attacks often lasting several days in a row.

It was the first modern war, but it was often fought using old tactics, and thus the human losses became greater than in any other war fought up until then. And the bizarre slaughter of an entire generation lasted for four years! Small wonder it's so difficult to comprehend what was really going on. These days, the death of a mere twenty or so American soldiers in a single day in Baghdad make headlines all over the world, but during World War I it wasn't a rare occasion with tens of thousands of casualties in a single day. What does this mean? Were human lives simply not as valuable than as they are today? Because, and not to in any way promote the Iraqi cause or scorn U.S. casualties (since all fatalities caused by the madness of war are equally stupid), what is a mere twenty deaths compared to what war used to be like?

Anyhow, The War To End All Wars was originally published back in 1968, and in this edition some corrections have been made here and there. But, one thing that hasn't been changed or corrected is the language in which it was written, and in the today's politically correct society it's thus strange to see how Edward M. Coffman writes "Negroes" and "Indians" instead of "African Americans" and "Native Americans". As a white European I'm not particularly upset (not upset at all, actually), but I'm sure many others are.

And not only because of the way the book was written. As with any other well-researched book about war, The War To End All Wars contains a great deal of outrageous facts. For instance, the following about the recruiting of all the new soldiers needed for the enormous army that were hastily put together, when the government:

"... declared that 47,3 per cent of the whites and 89 per cent of the Negroes were below the mental age of thirteen and, according to the standards of the day, morons. Either this pioneering testing venture was invalid or most American men in their twenties were very stupid." (pg.61)

Or how about the following order that was issued after a great deal of men had either deserted or simply refused to continue on with the senseless butchering:

"When men run away in front of the enemy, officers should take summary action to stop it, even to the point of shooting men down who are caught in such disgraceful conduct. No orders need be published on the subject, but it should be made known to many young officers that they must do whatever is required to prevent it." (pg.333)

The book deals exclusively, as the title says, with the American involvement in World War I, but beware, if you're looking for eye-witness accounts or descriptions of what actually happened at the front, then you must first be prepared to read about 200 pages filled with politics and endless descriptions of all the preparatory work taking place before the first U.S. soldiers were shipped across the Atlantic. And the accounts that do feature in the text after 200 pages are not very graphic or thorough. Obviously the politics behind it all is worth knowing, but if you're looking for gory battle scenes you're in for a disappointment.

Just like the war in itself was a disappointment. In the end, it never was the war to end all wars, just another display of human madness and our inability to live peacefully side by side with our fellow man.

In the last few days of the war a letter from a woman to an unknown German soldier was found on his body. Her words are bound to be repeated again and again, until this world of ours is destroyed by our very own hands and human civilization as we know it ceases to exist:

"It seems apparent that the dawn of peace is drawing nearer, and we dare entertain more hopes that this the most hideous of all wars, this vile murdering, which scorns and derides all humanity; which places us, no matter how highly cultured we pretended to be, lower than the savages, will end sometime and we can feel that we are human beings again." (pg.336)

Great History of US Role in WW 1.......2005-04-26

I learned a great deal of the US involvement in World War 1 from this book. I have been trying to research my grandfather's service in WW 1 and found this book very useful. While it is somewhat drawn out in certain sections, it is very informative in other sections. From the information I had, I was able to piece together where my grandfather served and the battles he was involved in while there. I would reccomend this book only to those seriously looking at the US role in WW 1.

A book only a historian of organization could love.......2003-04-10

On the back of this book, Stephen Ambrose praises this work as a definitive work on the US involvement in World War I, I should have been suspicious of its content from that point on.
Coffman's book beyond the first couple chapters is immensely not readable, and at times absolutely confusing. The early part of the book rushes through how the US ultimately came to be involved in the war, and only mentions the Lusitania, the resumption of German unrestricted submarine warfare, the Zimmerman telegram and social factors inside the US among groups that thought war wouldn't be such a bad idea in order to gain premacy for their viewpoint, fleetingly. It also doesn't really discuss Wilson's rejected attempts at mediation of the conflict and his realization that in order to reshape Europe in the way he advocated, the US needed to be involved in the conflict and have "troops on the ground." Coffman also doesn't discuss how demonizing portrayals of Germany and German soldiers influenced American perception as well as the fact that due to the blockade of Germany and the cutting of the trans-atlantic cable by the British, Germany could not dispell any of these demonizing tales spread in the US of the German army killing civilians and bombarding religious and other historical places with reckless disreguard.
What Coffman does give us in this work is a monotonous tome about the organization of the AEF and American air corps. The majority of this book is focused on nothing more than logistics and how the Allied powers needed American force very badly and therefore wanted to hasten our entrance into the war and allow troops to be commanded by French or English commanders, and not seperately. He also drones on about the internal conflict between Pershing and the British and French generals over this and other aspects.
To compound this boring tome on logistics, Coffman jumps around in his story. He finally gets to combat done by American pilots, and then in his next chapter begins with an extensive biographical sketch of American armed forces leaders, completely confusing the reader. By the time Coffman gets to actual combat participated in to any large extent by American forces, he stuffs all of this information into one chapter, completely losing the reader.
Coffman's maps included in the text are also few and far between as well as horribly designed. The maps don't clearly show the advance of US forces on each day of the battle being discussed, and do not include where the German trenches are relative to the Americans.
In short, this may have been a good book thirty years ago, but now it's hopelessly outdated and confusing. There needs to be another scholar in the mode of Martin Gilbert write the story of the AEF and American air corps.

A Scholarly and Brilliantly Written Tour de Force!.......2003-02-09

In recent decades, social historians have strayed from the study of key historical figures and prominent events and instead focused their efforts on the common folk. Incorporating the methodologies of sociology and other disciplines within the social sciences, historians have made tremendous strides in promoting a better understanding of the masses. A few military historians have followed suit. Instead of writing solely about battles, campaigns, and the generals who plotted the strategies and won or lost, they turned their attention on who made up the rank and file. Edward M. Coffman dominates this breed of new military historian. His book _The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I_ is a scholarly and brilliantly written tour de force; his collective group study: the American citizen soldier.First published in 1968 at the height of America's involvement in Vietnam, Coffman set the president for this new style of military history. His work is now a classic. As the subtitle suggests, Coffman tells the story of the whole American experience beginning in the spring of 1917 up to the signing of the Armistice. Throughout the book, Coffman remains focused on the American soldier and the planning, administration, and organization of his primary fighting force; the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).As a result, the political machinations of coalition warfare and high level strategic decisions receives only enough attention to place his subject in proper perspective.The creation of the AEF, the largest American armed force ever sent to fight on foreign soil up to that time, is a marvel in and of itself. Coffman covers all aspects of this tremendous achievement. General John J. Pershing sailed for France with what amounted to a understrengthed division: the 1st Division. The AEF grew to a corps sized force, and evntually the First and Second Armies. In April 1917, the AEF consisted of 200,000 soldiers. By November 1918, it contained nearly 4,000,000. In addition to discussions on the War Department in 1917, and the stateside expansion of the United States Army, the author also covers with clever succunctness other important topics. These subjects include: the meteoric sculpting of the massive AEF command and supply structure in France; the disagreements between the General Staff in Washington and Pershing's Headquarters in Chaumont, France. Coffman also includes separate chapters on the American Navy and the air war. Coffman ties these themes together with a flowing battle narrative of the major campaigns the AEF fought in France as well as, some of the lessor known battles. It is the topics relating to the social history of the American soldier, however, that Coffman excels. The author covers such topics as the draft, procurment of officers, the controversial amalgamation of Negro troops into French units early in the war (Pershing venomously fought attempts by the British and French to amalgamate American soldiers as canon fodder into Allied units. He said Americans will fight as Americans led by American officers. Not so, unfortunately, for Negro troops), and consciences objectors. From a social standpoint, Coffman also examines: the establishment of recreation facilities for the soldiers to discourage vice, liquor and prostitutes; venereal disease, and the culture clashes between the French and the newly arrived Americans. Coffman outlines the pros and cons of the American participation but, unlike some critics, is sympathetic to Pershing and the AEF. He is most sensitive to the role the fledgling American debut played in turning the tide and eventual victory for the Allies. Coffman makes every attempt to reveal the gratitude the French had for the American presence. Among the plethora of sources consulted, the author refers to numerous diaries and memoirs from the ordinary rank and file. An extensive "Essay on Sources" in which Coffman not only lists the archival material utilized, but also divulges how the information was applied to individual chapters, is a consolation for the lack of footnotes.The creation and deployment of the AEF in World War I is a watershed in American military history. If you want to learn not only how it was done, but also who made up its main body, this is the book to read. No one does the social history of the American army like Coffman.

An excellent account of the US in World War I.......1998-12-05

Coffman provides an interesting perspective on the First World War. His reader will find no discussion on the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand or information of the Schlieffen Plan. He will instead find details on the Selective Service Act and the famous American air ace Eddie Rickenbacker. Throughout this work, Coffman shows the United States as an important player in the Great War, and refreshingly he does not rehash the European aspects of the war about which so many others have written. Furthermore he is effective in his task, and his reader will have a better understanding of the American World War I military experience. Primarily Coffman examines the US Army, but he also devotes time to the Navy, Air Force, and the Marines. The book gives glimpses at the performance of each branch, and gives brief amounts of information about technological innovations during the war - especially in the realms of naval and air power. As one would expect, Coffman also writes about the major American military leaders such as John J. Pershing and William J. Donovan, but more interesting than his accounts of these men are his vignettes of common soldiers. Coffman obviously devoted a great deal of time conducting interviews with and reading the journals and letters of veterans. These portraits allow the reader to gain a real sense of the military experience of the Americans who fought in the war. Coffman's monograph is an excellent account of the United States during World War I. It is well written and researched, and it even includes enough maps that descriptions of battles can be understood. Its only drawback, and a minor one at that, is that the reader must already have a general understanding of the events in the Great War. Of course Coffman did not set out to write a general history of the war, but a general reader would need more background in order to truly gain the sense of America's wartime experience about which he writes.

The First World War: The War to End All Wars

Average customer rating:

The First World War: The War to End All Wars
Geoffrey Jukes , Geoffrey Jukes. Peter Simkins , and Michael Hickey
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books

World War I | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Second World War: A World In Flames (Essential Histories Specials)
The American Civil War: this Mighty Scourge of War
The Napoleonic Wars: The Rise And Fall Of An Empire (Essential Histories Specials)
Liberty or Death: Wars That Forged A Nation (Essential Histories Specials)
Rome at War: Caesar and his legacy (Essential Histories Specials)

ASIN: 1841767387
Release Date: 2003-09-25

Book Description

Raging for over four years across the tortured landscapes of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the First World War changed the face of warfare forever. Characterised by slow, costly advances and fierce attrition, the great battles of the Somme, Verdun and Ypres incurred human loss on a scale never previously imagined. This book, with a foreword by Professor Hew Strachan, covers the fighting on all fronts, from Flanders to Tannenberg and from Italy to Palestine. A series of moving extracts from personal letters, diaries and journals bring to life the experiences of soldiers and civilians caught up in the war.

To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order

Average customer rating:

Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations
Meticulous study on the League of Nations
A Good Analysis of President Wilson's Views
Turning Your Head Around on Woodrow Wilson

To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order
Thomas J. Knock
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

World War I | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860-1898 (Cornell Paperbacks)
Spreading the American Dream: American Economic & Cultural Expansion 1890-1945 (American Century)
Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945: With a New Afterword (Oxford Paperbacks)
Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War
The Cold War : A New History

ASIN: 0195075013

Book Description

In his widely acclaimed To End All Wars, Thomas Knock provides an intriguing, often provocative narrative of Woodrow Wilson's epic quest for a new world order. The account follows Wilson's thought and diplomacy from his policy toward revolutionary Mexico, through his dramatic call for "Peace without Victory" in World War I, to the Senate's rejection of the League of Nations. Throughout Knock explores the place of internationalism in American politics, sweeping away the old view that isolationism was the cause of Wilson's failure and revealing the role of competing visions of internationalism--conservative and progressive.

Customer Reviews:

Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations.......2005-03-30

This book is about Woodrow Wilson's quest for a new world order during and after WW I, especially his strong desire for the creation of a League of Nations which would mediate all future disputes between nations. The U.S. Senate, of course, voted it down. I found it interesting how the country (and Wilson) had strong socialist leanings, especially in international affairs, until War was declared in 1916, when a huge reaction took effect. Knock does a good job relating events and portraying Wilson as one whose ideas for truly ending warfare was convincing to world leaders but not his own country. The effort of trying to persuade his countrymen of the importance of a League probably broke his health and led to his death. Recommended.

Meticulous study on the League of Nations.......2002-01-01

When I was very young, I read somewhere that Wilson was the greatest swindler in human history. And Wilson has always been a mistery to me. Reading this book, I expected to learn the reason why Woodrow Wilson decided to lead America into World War I. But it was not a main theme of this book. And the explanation about it was not satisfactory to me. My misunderstanding about Wilson, however, is removed now thanks to this book.
Thomas J. Knox decidedly focused on the League issue. He meticulously studied the process of the formation of League of Nations. And his analysis of American political spectrum of that era - especially progressive internationalism & conservative internationalism - was excellent. It was very helpful in studying American history.

A Good Analysis of President Wilson's Views.......2001-09-21

To End All Wars attempts to show where President Wilson's ideas on the League of Nations came from and why he ultimatly failed. A fascinating protryal of early 20th century poltics, Knock successfully intergrates both the domestic policies of Wilson with his international policies. The links between the progressive, pacifist leagues and Wilson's views are clearly marked and appear credible. What is not examined is the moral conflict between Wilson's anti-war views and the fact he lead the country into World War I. Further research into this inconsitency could have led insight into why Wilson treated his former progrssive allies with such contempt as the war progressed. The ultimate result was his political inability to convince the American people to join the League of Nations after he alientated his greatest supporters.

Turning Your Head Around on Woodrow Wilson.......2000-05-31

Professor Knock turned my head around on the foreign policies of Woodrow Wilson. This book takes the reader back into the 1890s, when Wilson was a professor of politics and history, in its quest to understand the evolution of his foreign policy thru American entry into the First World War. Nothing is sacred in this author's hands either. He devises a large-scale drama encompassing a spectrum of players--Jane Addams, William Howard Taft, Elihu Root, Eugene Debs, and more--as he dissects how and why Wilson failed to gain Senate ratification for the Treaty of Versailles. If it is a familiar story, Professor Knock's retelling of it is both original and compelling. I think this is the single most important book currently available on Wilsonian foreign policy.

Average customer rating:

Triumph from the Trenches
compelling read
Depressing and Brilliant
Faulks on Song
Took a LONG time to read

Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
Similar Items:

Charlotte Gray
The Girl at the Lion d'Or
On Green Dolphin Street: A Novel
Regeneration
Human Traces: A Novel

ASIN: B000BDC8QK

Amazon.com

Readers who are entranced by the sweeping Anglo sagas of Masterpiece Theatre will devour Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks's historical drama. A bestseller in England, there's even a little high-toned erotica thrown into the mix to convince the doubtful. The book's hero, a 20-year-old Englishman named Stephen Wraysford, finds his true love on a trip to Amiens in 1910. Unfortunately, she's already married, the wife of a wealthy textile baron. Wrayford convinces her to leave a life of passionless comfort to be at his side, but things do not turn out according to plan. Wraysford is haunted by this doomed affair and carries it with him into the trenches of World War I. Birdsong derives most of its power from its descriptions of mud and blood, and Wraysford's attempt to retain a scrap of humanity while surrounded by it. There is a simultaneous description of his present-day granddaughter's quest to read his diaries, which is designed to give some sense of perspective; this device is only somewhat successful. Nevertheless, Birdsong is an unflinching war story that is bookended by romances and a rewarding read.

Book Description

A bestseller in Britain for nearly a year, this novel about the horror and passion of World War I is destined to be compared to classics such as All Quiet on the Western Front and A Farewell to Arms. "An extremely good novel, and a considerable addition to the fin-de-siecle flowering of first world war literature."--Penelope Lively, The Spectator (London).

Customer Reviews:

Triumph from the Trenches.......2007-06-27

Mr. Faulks has captured the essence of war in what is perhaps the best novel ever written about The Great War. We are taken into the horror of the trenches while at the same time we delve into the hearts and minds of the heros whose only goal is to live one more day. A triumph of love and perseverance in the darkest of times. If you like this book, watch for Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II by Douglas W Jacobson coming in October 2007.

compelling read.......2007-06-06

A gripping and emotional novel with compelling characters. The descriptions of trench warfare bring the reader into the WWI era. The author's well-written prose carry the narrative along, but I did find the transitions between the plot changes a bit choppy. All in all a good read and well worth checking out.

Depressing and Brilliant.......2007-05-21

The best war-based fiction I've possibly ever read. Birdsong begins as a love story. The young Englishman lives with a business partner's family in France while on assignment and falls in love with his wife and manages to steal her away. From there the book destroys said main character, Stephen, with the unreliability of love and the horror of war. Faulks' characterization is brilliant and lacks any easy answers from any character involved. Weir, Stephen, Gray, Jeanne, Isabelle, and the rest of the cast are all complex and thoughtful. The brutality that becomes Stephen's life is slow-building. His affair with Isabelle seems dreamlike before her own complications take her away. He survives the war just barely (in fact, this part of the book may have been taken too far as Stephen survives **SPOILER** the battle Somme, being left for dead, shot, another major battle, and being trapped for a week buried underground in a tunnel**END SPOILER**) but the pure unsentimentality of the descriptions of war and the horror that Stephen sees and endures make the story both believable and poignant. As Stephen attempts to survive mental collapse through-out a life of endured brutality, the depression of the novel becomes almost overwhelming and the reader finds his or her small moments of happiness in hope in the same small moments and acts that Stephen does. Only criticism of the book is the character of Elizabeth who ties the book to semi-modern times (still 30 years ago) was a bit irritating at times but she still serves her purpose quite well of giving the author a way to address greater themes of Stephen's life and setting.

Simply a great book and modern classic that will make one want to read more of Faulks and of The Great War itself.

Faulks on Song.......2007-03-24

I thought the first 200 words of the book were deadwood boring. But by the time I've hit the two thousandth (or so), I'm telling myself whoah there's something extremely real, and gripping, and emotionally scary, and almost magnetic about this story.

Somehow I was hooked at the start. Not by any magical realism (there wasn't any). Not by the postmodern reality-within-"reality" quasi-meanings and stuff (no need to 'figure anything out' here). It's just the way Faulks takes you into the minds of the characters. It's like you've become Stephen Wraysford, the key character around which the book revolves. From his passion and pain as a lover to that as a soldier, and back again. First a personal/family crisis (born of love or lust it's hard to confirm), moving to a national disaster. It's an awkward switch of scenes - from a soap opera-like romance to something akin to Saving Private Ryan - but Lit fans may enjoy it. Quite deliberate, so says Faulks (if you have the version with his commentary) who was experimenting with different styles of writing, although it's nothing as direct and contrasting as, say, David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas.

And smack (or boom) in the center: The Battle of the Somme.

Faulks paints a grotesquely vivid picture of the morning of 1st July 1916, where thousands of British solders (slowly) marched their way into German bullets. The arrogance, ignorance and downright incompetence of British military leadership being the key factor in the sacrificing of her sons for a few hundred yards of trenchland.

Faulks proves himself to be quite a literary Mel Gibson once the violence begins. There's a scene about how a captain gets shot near the barbed wire and falls onto it, only for the Germans to shoot his head off bit by bit as target practice until there's nothing but a red stump across his shoulders. Also gasp-inducing was the casualties from trench explosives, when British miners turned ad-hoc soldiers played hide-and-seek(-the-bomb) with their German counterparts. This was far from the basic Crime thriller sensationalism. This was history at its worst and, some might say, most required remembering.

But the book wasn't all easy-going. I found it hard to follow fully the narrative in the mines. Couldn't imagine very well the crawling, the breathing, the low ceilings, who's ahead of who, and so on. So if you're bothered by even imaginary claustrophobia, this book may not turn out very well for you. Also, I think Faulks packed in too many characters towards the mid-point of the book, such that it was tough keeping track. Perhaps authors should remember that a good portion of their readers do their reading after a hard day's work - it doesn't help if they have to keep flipping back to pg.145 to confirm that it's Jack, and not John, whose character is saying something important on pg. 190.

Still, it's depressing how much (and worse) of what Faulks depicted actually happened. And if the main aim of the book was to transport the reader almost a century back to the Great War, and reinject significance and memories of the (mainly British and French, in that order) losses therein, I think no other work does it better (how many WWI novels do we get nowadays, let alone those that are of prize-winning calibre?)

If you're a Lit person, Birdsong's probably a should-read. If you're a Lit fan AND a war buff (and you don't mind an almost humourless but occasionally poignant British-style narrative), what are you waitng for?

Took a LONG time to read.......2007-03-07

Stephen is just twenty years old when he spends some time in France, learning about the fabric trade. He is supposed to spend a few weeks with Rene Azaire and his family, checking out Azaire's factory and then return home to England with new ideas. Instead, Stephen ends up falling hard for Azaire's wife, Isabelle. The two of them begin an affair, and he convinces her to run away with him.

For awhile everything seems ideal in Stephen's life. Then, without explanation, Isabelle disappears completely. Stephen is devastated, and eventually ends up joining the army, fighting World War I. The life of a soldier during the war is brutal, but through a series of circumstances, Stephen is again in the town where he first met Isabelle. Could there be a chance for them after all these years?

The description of this book makes it seem interesting and satisfying. I imagined a tale of lost love leading to better understanding and eventual reconciliation. Instead, I was left with a tale of lost love, and then endless pages about the horrors of war, ending with a huge disappointment.

The war scenes were, without a doubt, very well written. They made perfectly clear how appalling war was for those on the front lines. I gained a better understanding of why it is sometimes so hard for soldiers to come home and live among civilians again.

The rest of the book was weak, though. The author sets it up so the reader is in suspense, waiting for Isabelle's secret to come out. We are desperate to learn what Stephen's reaction will be when he finds out why she left him. Instead of following a linear progression, though, the author decides to throw in the much-overused plot device of a granddaughter investigating her grandfather's life by reading his diaries. The moment we are waiting for never even comes up in the narrative. Instead, it is discussed dispassionately by others a generation later. After forcing myself to wade through this whole book, I felt cheated at the end.

Average customer rating:

The War To End All Wars
Edward Coffman
Manufacturer: Easton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000B1H35S

Product Description

Leather Bound, Collector's Edition

From Ypres to Gallipoli: Forgotten Voices of the Great War

Average customer rating:

From Ypres to Gallipoli: Forgotten Voices of the Great War
Max Arthur
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B000BDC8P6

The Opening Shots: Forgotten Voices of the Great War

Average customer rating:

The Opening Shots: Forgotten Voices of the Great War
Max Arthur
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B000B9NE12

[WWI] The WAR To END ALL WARS. The AMERICAN MILITARY EXPERIENCE In WORLD WAR I.

Average customer rating:

[WWI] The WAR To END ALL WARS. The AMERICAN MILITARY EXPERIENCE In WORLD WAR I.
Edward M. Coffman
Manufacturer: University of Wisconsin Press,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NYFDTQ

Average customer rating:

War to End All Wars
Edward M. Coffman
Manufacturer: The University of Wisconsin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

World War I | Military | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0299109607

Book Description

Too often, military histories are limited to descriptions and analyses of battles, from the perspective of opposing commanders. In this study, Edward Coffman places WW I within the context of the entire American war effort.

In addition to describing major battles and personalities--including junior officers such as Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall and George S. Patton, Jr. --Coffman presents the perspective of the common soldier.

Topics often missing from histories of WW I are examined: operation of the draft, training of officers, performance of black troops, treatment of conscientious objectors and formation of the air force.

"Considered by many to be the best single account of the American participation in WW I." (Publisher's Source)

Books:

Books