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4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Probably the best one-volume book on WWI I've read in a very long while. Meyer is a great writer who keeps things moving, never losing the reader along the way. Very fresh, crisp, and energetic. A page-turner in WWI history...and that's saying a lot!
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I went in to this book knowing not very much about World War I; meaning I had heard stories (and watched movies) about the battles of Somme, Vimy Ridge, and Passchendaele, and I learned the poem, In Flanders Fields, like everyone else in school growing up (in Canada at least), but I really didn't know anything about the 'Why' of it all. This book taught me a lot without overwhelming me with battle details. I thoroughly enjoyed the background chapters that interspersed the book. In fact, they were often my favourite chapters and really helped me piece together the things I knew about history and the connection they had with the war.
If I have one criticism about the book, it is that Canadians are not even mentioned as being in the war until page 583, which was towards the end of 1917, leading in to the Battle of Passchendaele. Now, we can likely assume that this is because they were under the command of the British and so any mention of British, or BEF, troops included the Canadian Expeditionary Forces (and the other Commonwealth countries who received brief mentions but didn't even make it in to the index), BUT I found it a little off-putting. In fact, until reaching page 583 and reading "When the Canadians were selected to lead the next assault..." it hadn't even occurred to me that they were not mentioned previous to this paragraph, so the mention of them at this point made their lack of inclusion previously stand out.
This may have bothered me even less if reading the book hadn't inspired me to dig up my Great-Grandfather's military record from WWI; in which I learned that he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915, was wounded in Somme in 1916, returned to battle in France and was wounded a second time (in Somme again) in August of 1918 (a shot that shattered his left knee and caused him to have his leg amputated before returning home to his family).
Having chosen to include this criticism, I feel I should also include that the author wrote a concise and engaging view of 4 brutal years of war in barely more than 700 pages (if we don't count the notes and indexes) and that, to achieve that, many details had to be left out. Much has been written about the role that Canadian troops played in the war and so my complaint is not that they weren't focused on, but rather that they weren't mentioned as more of an aside towards the end of the book.
The CEF do get a nice nod on page 691, however, when G. J. Meyer wrote:
"At the end of the summer of 1918 those troops were keeping intact a record that is nothing less than astonishing in the context of the Great War. They never once failed to capture an objective, never were driven out of a position they had an opportunity to consolidate, and never lost a gun."
All in all, a wonderful read that has left me with a far greater understanding of world events from 1914-1918 that I would highly recommend to others who want to understand more without the detailed battle accounts that would have gone way over my head.
If I have one criticism about the book, it is that Canadians are not even mentioned as being in the war until page 583, which was towards the end of 1917, leading in to the Battle of Passchendaele. Now, we can likely assume that this is because they were under the command of the British and so any mention of British, or BEF, troops included the Canadian Expeditionary Forces (and the other Commonwealth countries who received brief mentions but didn't even make it in to the index), BUT I found it a little off-putting. In fact, until reaching page 583 and reading "When the Canadians were selected to lead the next assault..." it hadn't even occurred to me that they were not mentioned previous to this paragraph, so the mention of them at this point made their lack of inclusion previously stand out.
This may have bothered me even less if reading the book hadn't inspired me to dig up my Great-Grandfather's military record from WWI; in which I learned that he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915, was wounded in Somme in 1916, returned to battle in France and was wounded a second time (in Somme again) in August of 1918 (a shot that shattered his left knee and caused him to have his leg amputated before returning home to his family).
Having chosen to include this criticism, I feel I should also include that the author wrote a concise and engaging view of 4 brutal years of war in barely more than 700 pages (if we don't count the notes and indexes) and that, to achieve that, many details had to be left out. Much has been written about the role that Canadian troops played in the war and so my complaint is not that they weren't focused on, but rather that they weren't mentioned as more of an aside towards the end of the book.
The CEF do get a nice nod on page 691, however, when G. J. Meyer wrote:
"At the end of the summer of 1918 those troops were keeping intact a record that is nothing less than astonishing in the context of the Great War. They never once failed to capture an objective, never were driven out of a position they had an opportunity to consolidate, and never lost a gun."
All in all, a wonderful read that has left me with a far greater understanding of world events from 1914-1918 that I would highly recommend to others who want to understand more without the detailed battle accounts that would have gone way over my head.
informative
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
informative
medium-paced
WWI was a meat grinder, Generals, at the time, believed that attack was the way to win a war. They threw lives away attacking unobtainable goals.
We have far fewer first-hand accounts of WWI so there are more stats, more maneuvers, maps and theoreticals in a WWI history book than personal accounts like WWII histories.
That means the book is dry. It's a bit of a slog to get through but it's a good book. I feel like I've got a better understanding of WWI, the causes and the mindsets of the leaders at the time.
I've only read a couple WWI history books but this is one of the best, specifically because it delved into the leaders at the time.
We have far fewer first-hand accounts of WWI so there are more stats, more maneuvers, maps and theoreticals in a WWI history book than personal accounts like WWII histories.
That means the book is dry. It's a bit of a slog to get through but it's a good book. I feel like I've got a better understanding of WWI, the causes and the mindsets of the leaders at the time.
I've only read a couple WWI history books but this is one of the best, specifically because it delved into the leaders at the time.
informative
medium-paced