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THE WESTERN FRONT

A HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR, 1914-1918

Familiar ground, but Lloyd’s keen insights and engaging prose make the book a valuable addition to the literature.

The first in a projected three-volume history of the bloody, chaotic “maelstrom” that was World War I.

After several well-received accounts of individual campaigns, including Passchendaele and Loos, historian Lloyd takes on the entire war, focusing this installment on the fighting in France and Belgium. Since this is a military history, the author skips over the Byzantine diplomatic maneuvers following the June 1914 assassination of the Austrian archduke and begins with the declarations of war in August. He adds an eight-page epilogue for events after the 1918 armistice. Most readers know that Germany opened with a massive invasion through neutral Belgium, a mission that nearly succeeded in capturing Paris but, after two months of slaughter, settled into a bloody stalemate along 400 miles of trenches extending from Belgium across France to Switzerland. With Germany ensconced in France, the Allied powers “had little choice but to attack,” writes Lloyd. “So they mounted a series of major offensives, each bigger than the last, to break up the trench network and return to mobile warfare.” Only in 1918 did Germany’s army, reinforced after Russia withdrew from the war, resume the offensive, which, like that in 1914, ended in a near miss. Many popular military histories focus on the common soldier, but Lloyd emphasizes senior commanders, all of whom were “trying to cope with a war that had shattered their lives as much as any other.” Though most top officials had numerous flaws, the author rejects their characterization “as ‘donkeys’ or ‘butchers’: unfeeling military aristocrats fighting the wrong kind of war.” The reality, as Lloyd demonstrates, was the usual messy picture of trial and error, with generals often learning from their mistakes and eager to adopt new technology. Tactics and firepower vastly improved throughout the war, but so did countermeasures. There are a few maps, but the author’s emphasis on battles and maneuvers will require close attention and, perhaps, a WWI atlas at hand.

Familiar ground, but Lloyd’s keen insights and engaging prose make the book a valuable addition to the literature.

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-63149-794-0

Page Count: 688

Publisher: Liveright/Norton

Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

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BRAVE MEN

The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist (1900–45) collected his work from WWII in two bestselling volumes, this second published in 1944, a year before Pyle was killed by a sniper’s bullet on Okinawa. In his fine introduction to this new edition, G. Kurt Piehler (History/Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville) celebrates Pyle’s “dense, descriptive style” and his unusual feel for the quotidian GI experience—a personal and human side to war left out of reporting on generals and their strategies. Though Piehler’s reminder about wartime censorship seems beside the point, his biographical context—Pyle was escaping a troubled marriage—is valuable. Kirkus, at the time, noted the hoopla over Pyle (Pulitzer, hugely popular syndicated column, BOMC hype) and decided it was all worth it: “the book doesn’t let the reader down.” Pyle, of course, captures “the human qualities” of men in combat, but he also provides “an extraordinary sense of the scope of the European war fronts, the variety of services involved, the men and their officers.” Despite Piehler’s current argument that Pyle ignored much of the war (particularly the seamier stuff), Kirkus in 1944 marveled at how much he was able to cover. Back then, we thought, “here’s a book that needs no selling.” Nowadays, a firm push might be needed to renew interest in this classic of modern journalism.

Pub Date: April 26, 2001

ISBN: 0-8032-8768-2

Page Count: 513

Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001

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MADHOUSE AT THE END OF THE EARTH

THE BELGICA'S JOURNEY INTO THE DARK ANTARCTIC NIGHT

A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.

A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet.

On Aug. 16, 1897, the steam whaler Belgica set off from Belgium with young  Adrien de Gerlache as commandant. Thus begins Sancton’s riveting history of exploration, ingenuity, and survival. The commandant’s inexperienced, often unruly crew, half non-Belgian, included scientists, a rookie engineer, and first mate Roald Amundsen, who would later become a celebrated polar explorer. After loading a half ton of explosive tonite, the ship set sail with 23 crew members and two cats. In Rio de Janeiro, they were joined by Dr. Frederick Cook, a young, shameless huckster who had accompanied Robert Peary as a surgeon and ethnologist on an expedition to northern Greenland. In Punta Arenas, four seamen were removed for insubordination, and rats snuck onboard. In Tierra del Fuego, the ship ran aground for a while. Sancton evokes a calm anxiety as he chronicles the ship’s journey south. On Jan. 19, 1898, near the South Shetland Islands, the crew spotted the first icebergs. Rough waves swept someone overboard. Days later, they saw Antarctica in the distance. Glory was “finally within reach.” The author describes the discovery and naming of new lands and the work of the scientists gathering specimens. The ship continued through a perilous, ice-littered sea, as the commandant was anxious to reach a record-setting latitude. On March 6, the Belgica became icebound. The crew did everything they could to prepare for a dark, below-freezing winter, but they were wracked with despair, suffering headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and later, madness—all vividly capture by Sancton. The sun returned on July 22, and by March 1899, they were able to escape the ice. With a cast of intriguing characters and drama galore, this history reads like fiction and will thrill fans of Endurance and In the Kingdom of Ice.

A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.

Pub Date: May 4, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-984824-33-2

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021

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