Product Description

As poignant as Niall Fregusson's The Pity of War, as powerful as John Keegan's The First World War, this is an engrossing eye-witness history of World War I. From the trenches to the battle lines, in bold advances and fighting retreats and courageous stands, this oral chronicle of World War I by award-winning historian Lyn Macdonald brings to life the massive German offensive of Spring 1918 that became the Second Battle of Somme. As moving as it is monumental, the volume recounts the devastating assault in the words of the men who survived it -- from the commanders to the war-weary British Tommies, the eager German foot soldiers, and the as-yet-untested doughboys fresh from the U.S. Unforgettably, To the Last Man puts a human face on the armies in the field as it gives voice to the soldiers who together held their position against the foe-resisting, as the Allied command had ordered, "to the last round and the last man."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1763583 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
When Lyn Macdonald published her first World War I history, They Called It Passchendaele, in 1978, it had all the hallmarks of a labour of love. Six books later the project has become a debt of honour.

To The Last Man follows the usual Macdonald format. She relies on archival data to provide the skeleton of the narrative, and uses eyewitness accounts of veterans involved in the action to provide the flesh and blood. The result, as ever, is a compassionate and often disturbing account that brings the reader as close to understanding the minds of those who had to endure the mud, the snipers, the noise, the chaos, the boredom, the loneliness, the shelling, the bravery and the terror as we are likely to get.

Television and newspapers have only just discovered the power of the eyewitness foot soldier, having hitherto relied on self-serving politicians and generals for their history. However, the media has not learnt the difference between using the veterans' own words to make a producer or writer's point and allowing them to speak for themselves. Because she's been at it for so long and has had time to build relationships with the old soldiers, Macdonald has, and it is this that makes this book so special. She points out that we have become accustomed to talking of the "horrors" of World War I and to talking of the soldiers as "victims", but that none of the survivors ever used the word "horror" to describe their experiences and that to describe them as "victims" is demeaning. These men were not innocent dupes; they may have hated the war, despised their generals and been scared stiff, but they did believe in a cause and drew a sense of achievement from what they had endured.

. Macdonald has only one more book to write--that taking us to the end of the war. By the time it comes out there will almost certainly be no survivors left. I think that both Macdonald and the veterans would agree there is a poetic symmetry about that. --John Crace

Customer Reviews

Utterly magnificent.
Unfortunately I purchased this book prior to reading the preceding works.However,it prompted me to buy all the previous Lyn Macdonald books on the Great War.I have never experienced war,thank God,but these books have brought the horror and tragedy very close to home.Lyn has an unnerring eye for detail and her respect for both the men and women who lived and died through this most awful of wars is plain to see.This book,and the previous ones in the series are absolutely essential reads and should be a mainstay of any schools curriculam.....to get the point across not just about the futility of war but also about the everyday heroism of the ordinary person and the great sacrifices that were made to ensure that we live the way we do today.We have a huge debt to pay and sometimes we forget it.

Outstanding
MacDonald has again produced a brilliant book detailing the huge German push in the Spring of 1918. As with her previous books MacDonald gives voice to the veterans of the battles and lets their words describe the events and their part in it. It is as harrowing a story as you will ever read but again the immense bravery and courage of the 'common soldier' shines through. The men who fought and died clearly believed in the cause for which they were ready to lay down their lives, something that the modern selfish generation will have a great deal of trouble believing or understanding. MacDonald's books are a tremendous tribute and testament to the generation of young men and women who fought in the Great War. MacDonald has ensured that 'We Shall Never Forget'.

Excellent, detailed, moving and enlightening.
Lyn Macdonald has an excellent grasp of early 20th century history, a period that determined the course of Europe and the free world. You don't need film footage to picture the horrow of warfare when the descriptive the author uses put's you right there with the fighting men, on both sides. This book captures the strategy and the bloody reality of making it happen The bold attempt by the Germans to break the deadlock, the conviction of both sides that they were right. The mutual respect the soldiers had for each other, the minute by minute need to survive and at the same time kill or be killed reality of the butchery all around them. The soldiers story emerges with dignity, the realisation that both sets of combatants were mere porns in the hands of the politicians. Read the book, going to bed is easy, going to sleep is much more difficult. "To the Last Man" will make sure of that.