The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916
by Sir Alistair Horne
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sir Alistair HorneEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994-01-01
ISBN: 0140170413
Number of pages: 388
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916
Book Review: ... and of folly, is a heavy one indeed.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the second book in Horne's excellent trilogy on the three Franco-German conflicts that spanned a 70 year period. The first book is "The Fall of Paris" which concerns the 1870-71 war, and the last book is "To Lose a Battle" which concerns the Second World War, with the focus on the 1940 French debacle. Of the three, this one is my favorite. There is no question that Alistair Horne is one of the preeminent historians of the 20th Century, earning him a very justified knighthood, and even a place on the bookshelf in the Bush White House, of all places, for his equally excellent "A Savage War of Peace."
Horne writes history as it should be, describing in equal measure "the big picture" while also detailing the agonizing particulars in the case histories of certain soldiers. He provides an initial chapter, entitled "La Debacle" which succinctly outlining the antecedents to WW I, in the conflict of 1870, including the change in strategic thinking which led to the mistakes made at Verdun. It seems the "pendulum" of offensive / defensive thinking always "over swings" among the three conflicts. His aftermath and epilogue sections are equally well done, as he describes the effects of the battle on the participants and even many non-participants, 50, and probably even a 100 years later. Consider that the French rallying cry at Verdun: "They shall not pass" was co-opted by the O.A.S, the die-hard (literally) right-wing group of pied-noirs during the Algerian War, with their "De Gaulle shall not pass." Captain de Lattre de Tassigny, who fought at Verdun near the "Tranchee des Baionnettes" was a driving force in the "fort" approach to Vietnam, which lead to another debacle, Dinh Binh Phu.
The heart of the book is the seven month battle itself, written as a military historian would. It is tactics and strategies, chances taken, opportunities lost. It is the "big boys," the thinking of Falkenhayn on the one side, and Joffre and Petain on the other. The military units are specified, the maps are excellent, and there is a good collection of pictures, of the leaders, and the led, and the terrain that Horne says has become the closest thing to a desert in Europe. Fort Douaumont was lost in most bizarre circumstances, Fort Vaux held. The losses, just in deaths, to both sides a staggering 700,000.
To fully enjoy this book it helps to know French, since Horne does not provide a translation for certain passages. It also helps to have a military background, which would provide a prior understanding of unit designations, the "military mind", and the equipment used. I agree with the criticism of other reviewers--Horne is clearly a Francophile, and his sympathies evident. On the other hand, the "Kirkus review" posted above is ludicrous, must have been a "first day on the job" assignment.
In the new preface Horne asks if such a battle could happen again. He mentions it one sentence, but then gives it a pass, the Iran-Iraq war of the `90's, in which about the same number, 700,000, died in equally senseless "charge the machine guns" style of warfare. Horne traced the ramifications of Verdun, but there was no speculation on the probable and certain ramifications of the Iran-Iraq slaughter.
On a personal note I've toured the battlefield twice. A "desert" is a bit of an overstatement, it is green, but it is also very haunting, and the holes from shellfire and trenches are still apparent. And going through one of the forts is an unpleasant, claustrophobic experience, and that is on a sunny day, and being well-fed. Tough to imagine the fort experience in the cold, rain, under shellfire and hungry.
A "takeaway"? Horne is the master at documenting the 70 years of conflict between the "children of Charlemagne." He says in his preface that this is an ANTI-WAR book. And he celebrates the peace between these children that has finally come. The relevant question today: How many years until the "children of Abraham" declare peace?
Summary of The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916
The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles. Its aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death and a battleground whose once fertile terrain is even now a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, continuously in print for over fifty years, is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the battle and the men who fought there. It shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War to the minds of those who waged it, the traditions that bound them and the world that gave them the opportunity.World War I Books
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