Product Description

Spring 1916, and three great armies - French, British and, on the other side of the wire, German - are locked in a stalemate of mud and blood on Europe's Western Front. On the ground, young British soldiers lose their innocence in the hell that is No Man's Land, while in the skies above the trenches a new breed of warrior, armed with a devastating new weapon, comes of age. As the conflict stretches into its third year, a neutral but woefully unprepared and ill-equipped America is slowly goaded into war. It falls to General John Pershing to galvanise his country's army into readiness and as the first American troops reach the front in 1917, the world waits to see if the tide of a war that has already cost millions of lives can at last be turned. Combining an historian's eye for detail with a novelist's understanding of man's hopes and fears, Shaara carries the reader into the hearts and minds of some of the war's most memorable characters, from the heroic to the infamous, and vividly brings to life one of the greatest conflagrations in human history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #183884 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 848 pages

Review
'A gripping account of World War I - from tactics to strategy. The reader feels the horror of the trenches in France' - General Tommy Franks (US Army, Ret'd). 'The best novel about the Great War since Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front...compelling, authentic, and imaginative' - John Mosler, author of 'The Myth of the Great War'. 'A riveting masterpiece revolving around the ghastly conflict that still profoundly defines the world we live in' - Steve Forbes. 'Shaara has demonstrated that rarest of writing gifts, making literature read like history and history read like literature...he brings World War I to pulsating life' - Joseph Persico, author of '11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour: Armistice Day 1918

From the Back Cover
Spring 1916, and three great armies – French, British and, on the other side of the wire, German – are locked in a stalemate of mud and blood on Europe’s Western Front. On the ground, young soldiers lose their innocence in the hell that is No Man’s Land, while in the skies above the trenches, a new breed of warrior, armed with a devastating new weapon, comes of age…

As the conflict stretches into its third year, a neutral and woefully ill-equipped America is goaded into the fray, and the world waits to see if the tide of a war that has cost the lives of millions can at last be turned.

Written with an historian’s eye for detail and a novelist’s understanding of our hopes and fears, this sweeping, epic work of fiction brings to life some of the First World
War’s most memorable characters and carries readers to the heart of one of the greatest conflagrations in human history.

‘Shaara has demonstrated that rarest of writing gifts, making literature read like history and history read like literature…he brings World War One to pulsating life’
Joe Persico, author of 11th Month, 11th Day, 11 Hour: Armistice Day 1918

‘A gripping account…the reader feels the horror of the trenches in France’General Tommy Franks

About the Author
Born in 1952, Jeff Shaara is one of America's most successful historical novelists - the New York Times bestselling author of six books, including Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure that complete the great Civil War trilogy that began with his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, The Killer Angels. A graduate of Florida State University, he lives in Montana.

Customer Reviews

Doesn't live up to the blurb...
An interesting take on the First World War, from a distinctly USA point of view - but the book is ultimately disappointing. A historical novel woven around real characters and events, it is never quite clear where historical fact becomes confused with dramatic licence. The portrayal of Sir William Robertson as a Cockney is simply inaccurate, for example. However, I suspect the book is aimed squarely at the USA market, where the consistent portrayal of Europeans as hidebound, unimaginative prisoners of their colonial past will play better than the more complex reality of the situation.

The underlying theme of the book is "If it hadn't have been for the Americans, Britain and France wouldn't have won the war." It's good in parts, and overall probably worth reading if you have an interest in First World War history, but the blurb on the cover promises "The best novel about the First World War since 'All Quiet on the Western Front'" - to which I can only comment: not in my opinion.

Disappointing
Oh dear. After receiving this novel with high hopes, as a Christmas gift, I was very disappointed indeed. The research is limited, the dialogue unmistakably American - regardless of the characters' nationality - and the narrative rambling and in desperate need of an editor.

Don't bother.

Promises much, delivers little
I too was given this book as a Christmas present, but like one of the previous reviewers I kept skipping pages to see when the real book would start. For me it never did. The author may be a historian, but his unexciting descriptive narrative never really brought the period to life. Pershing was very two-dimensional and whilst it was good to read about the war from an American perspective, I actually found it quite dull. How genuine the exchanges between the French generals and politicians and Pershing were I have no idea, but they are all written in such an American idiom that it never seems convincing.

Similarly, the limited interaction between British and American is stilted and conforming to Hollywood British character stereotype and you become acutely aware that book really is not written as an historical account of a very limited part of the Great War, but more as a semi-factual novel written for the American market for Americans - nothing wrong in that that, but from a European perspective, somewhat uninvolving and confusing.

His choice of characters never really sprang to life and I became insanely exasperated with Temple - characters similar to his have been done to death by the entertainment industry across several theatres of war from Cold Mountain to Longest Day to Private Ryan and Pork Chop Hill, not to mention all the Vietnam war movies. His character - a genuine one who you would think therefore had something unique to add because he was real - is simply a cipher and I feel if you want to read an account of a soldier's experiences in the trenches, you would do better to read Goodbye To All That or All Quiet on the Western Front.

The manner of the death of Richthofen - always shrouded in mystery -regurgiatated almost line by line a TV programme made a couple of years ago which proved that it was ground fire that brought him down and not a British pilot. Whilst this isn't strictly speaking plagiarism, you would have expected a historian of Shaara's claimed stature to have done a bit more background digging and speculate more on the accuracy of this account.

So ultimately a rather unsatisfying experience all round and far too long. I actually found the biographical notes at the back of the book more interesting, concisely written and involving than the novel as a whole and I advise whoever reads the novel to read these first. I did finish the book because it became a challenge to do so, but I felt a very hollow sense of victory at the end of it.