salientpoints Posted 14 August , 2004 Share Posted 14 August , 2004 I have just received a proof copy of the following book Pals may want to look out for in late October. Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: The War to End All Wars and Its Violent End by Joseph E. Persico. ISBN 0091795036 £17.99 21st October 2004 At around 470 pages it will be a big read about one day for sure. Also will contain 16 pages of photos. (My proof is minus the index and photos). Publisher synopsis: November 11, 1918. The final hours pulsate with tension as every man in the trenches hopes to escape the melancholy distinction of being the last to die in World War I. The Allied generals knew the fighting would end precisely at 11:00 A.M, yet in the final hours they flung men against an already beaten Germany. The result? Eleven thousand casualties suffered–more than during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Why? Allied commanders wanted to punish the enemy to the very last moment and career officers saw a fast-fading chance for glory and promotion. Joseph E. Persico puts the reader in the trenches with the forgotten and the famous–among the latter, Corporal Adolf Hitler, Captain Harry Truman, and Colonels Douglas MacArthur and George Patton. Mainly, he follows ordinary soldiers’ lives, illuminating their fate as the end approaches. Persico sets the last day of the war in historic context with a gripping reprise of all that led up to it, from the 1914 assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand, which ignited the war, to the raw racism black doughboys endured except when ordered to advance and die in the war’s last hour. Persico recounts the war’s bloody climax in a cinematic style that evokes All Quiet on the Western Front, Grand Illusion, and Paths of Glory. The pointless fighting on the last day of the war is the perfect metaphor for the four years that preceded it, years of senseless slaughter for hollow purposes. This book is sure to become the definitive history of the end of a conflict Winston Churchill called “the hardest, cruelest, and least-rewarded of all the wars that have been fought.” Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwiwriter Posted 20 August , 2004 Share Posted 20 August , 2004 This sounds similar to Stanley Weintraub's "A Stillness Heard Round the World," only a little more front-line oriented. I have the Weintraub book and it was essential for the sections on my web page about the 1918 Armistice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salientpoints Posted 19 October , 2004 Author Share Posted 19 October , 2004 Another great free draw folks - this time I have two proof copies of this title up for grabs on my website... Cheers Ryan P.S. I hope I am allowed to make these announcements, I certainly make no financial gain out of these and simply use my publishing contacts to grab freebies for like-minded folk. Of course the publisher gets some PR but we the readers get the chance of free books Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salientpoints Posted 19 November , 2004 Author Share Posted 19 November , 2004 And the winners were: Russell Gore Marion Arnott Congrats to you both - I will email you to get a postal address - More competitions coming soon! Cheers Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 19 November , 2004 Share Posted 19 November , 2004 There is a partially negative review on forum somewhere, some pretty basic factual errors. He was impressive on US History Channel & NPR 11 11. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
egbert Posted 19 November , 2004 Share Posted 19 November , 2004 There is a partially negative review on forum somewhere, some pretty basic factual errors. He was impressive on US History Channel & NPR 11 11. Confirm TV impression! Paul do we have to go into a new fight about myths? I am curious whether you accept the stupidiness of last minute career-fighting and thus slaughtering unnecessary pals on both sides? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 20 November , 2004 Share Posted 20 November , 2004 I do accept it Egbert and much of it was US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Michaeloppen Posted 29 November , 2004 Share Posted 29 November , 2004 I'm reviewing the book for Military History (an American Magazine). Despite the publicity the book only has about fifty pages out of four hundred that discuss November 11. It's basically a general history - and Persico doesn't know much about the war. He obviously worked hard, reading every personal memoir and letter he could get his hands on and regurgitating them in the book. About two thirds of the book consists of anecdotes, and they're as readable as war anecdotes are. There are the regulars: Vera Brittain, Robert Graves, and the obligatory A. Hitler. But there are plenty of more obscure figures, and I give him high marks for his research. Also for including more French and German participants than most. But at intervals he steps back to give readers the big picture, and it's clear he preferred reading memoirs. I suspect he grabbed an old encyclopedia or high school text and copied the major events because he relentlessly repeats every cliche about the war. He even drags up that old chestnut about the German losing because they didn't stick to the letter of the Schlieffen Plan. All the generals and all the European politicians are heartless and stupid (or more heartless and more stupid than in other wars). Fortunately, the book is written in a very episodic fashion, so it's easy to skip his attempts at history. I'd skip all sections that discuss politics or any general of two stars or above. The rest is fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andigger Posted 29 November , 2004 Share Posted 29 November , 2004 Thanks Michaeloppen for your review, and welcome to the Forum. I saw the book in the store today, but didn't much of a chance to read over it. I'm going to look for the other threads on the book, but I can tell by your points that you are offering a well thought threw analysis. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 27 December , 2004 Share Posted 27 December , 2004 I have started this and, lo and behold, about page 93, saw he was writing about Alexander McClintock! See below. Though I don't think I have persuaded many of you to read his book, this author quotes from it 10 times. He also uses my foreward and afterword from the CEF Books reprint which Tom Morgan has - Norm Christie of CEF attributed the latter to me but not the former. I was sorry he did not mention he won DCM and was the man who dug up the body of Henry Hutton Scott for his father Canon Scott but was very pleased he brought part of Alex's compelling story to the public's attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ciaran Byrne Posted 29 December , 2004 Share Posted 29 December , 2004 I must admit that I read the parts about the re-entry into Mons by 5th Lancers and to be fair I have to give him credit for even mentioning the regiment as in my experience there is little or no mention of the regiment in most books at all. I think the actual events surrounding the regiment are slightly sketchy though. I think I'll wait until it comes out in paperback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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