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France and the Great War tells the story of how the French community embarked upon, sustained, and in some ways prevailed in the Great War. In this 2003 book, Leonard Smith and his co-authors synthesize many years of scholarship, examining the origins of the war from a diplomatic and military viewpoint, before shifting their emphasis to socio-cultural and economic history when discussing the civilian and military war culture. They look at the 'total' mobilization of the French national community, as well as the military and civilian crises of 1917, and the ambiguous victory of 1918. The book concludes by revealing how traces of the Great War can still be found in the political and cultural life of the French national community. This lively, accessible and engaging book will be of enormous value to students of the Great War.
About the causes and effects of World War I.
This study is based on the extraordinarily rich and varied range of trench journalism that brings to life - in the vivid language of the soldiers themselves - not only their suffering but also their vulgarity, sentimentality and idealism.
This study is based on the extraordinarily rich and varied range of trench journalism that brings to life - in the vivid language of the soldiers themselves - not only their suffering but also their vulgarity, sentimentality and idealism.
Essential reading on the first world war : a book not about military strategy or the day to day progress of battles, but the special character - and consequences - of the most violent war in history. The combatants thought the Great War was the war to end all wars. It was unlike any other before or since in three neglected but highly significant ways. First, it was unprecendented in its violence and carnage. Why was this, and what were the effects of tolerating it? Second, each side was motivated by a vehement nationalistic, racist animus against the enemy. How did this 'crusade' evolve and what did it mean for Europe and the world? Third, with its millions of deaths the war created a tidal wave of grief. How could mourners ever come to terms with the agonizing pain? The Great War shaped the twentieth century, and especially its disasters. This important new book makes a vital contribution to understanding this traumatic and terrible period in our history. With its wealth of compelling documentary evidence drawn from all sides in the conflict, this innovative work has already established itself as a classic in the history of modern warfare.
This is a volume of comparative essays on the First World War that focuses on one central feature: the political and cultural "mobilization" of the populations of the main belligerent countries in Europe behind the war. It explores how and why they supported the war for so long (as soldiers and civilians), why that support weakened in the face of the devastation of trench warfare, and why states with a stronger degree of political support and national integration (such as Britain and France) were ultimately successful.
Winner of the Prix Goncourt A New York Times Notable Book of the Year The setting may be the rainy lower Loire Valley of the 1950s, but it is the WW I battlefields of Artois, Meuse, Lorraine, and Yser that form the emotional backdrop to this poignant testament to the vitality of life that death cannot dim. Fields of Glory begins as a collection of utterly charming reminiscences of the eccentricities of family elders told by an unnamed and indeterminately aged narrator. In pure and graceful prose, Rouaud describes crotchety grandfather Burgaud with his equally difficult car, a cramped and leaky CV2, and maiden great-aunt Marie with her card file of saints—"A prefatory catalogue of terrifying symptoms refers the reader to the saint specializing in the corresponding disorder. The work of a lifetime." It is in the midst of this comedy of daily life that the melancholy subtext of three generations slowly emerges: the stories of the two young men who were casualties of the Fields of Glory and the family that remains to remember them.
On 26 August 1914 the world-famous university library in the Belgian town of Louvain was looted and destroyed by German troops. The international community reacted in horror - 'Holocaust at Louvain' proclaimed the Daily Mail - and the behaviour of the Germans at Louvain came to be seen as the beginning of a different style of war, without the rules that had governed military conflict up to that point - a more total war, in which enemy civilians and their entire culture were now 'legitimate' targets. Yet the destruction at Louvain was simply one symbolic moment in a wider wave of cultural destruction and mass killing that swept Europe in the era of the First World War. Using a wide range of examples and eye-witness accounts from across Europe at this time, award-winning historian Alan Kramer paints a picture of an entire continent plunging into a chilling new world of mass mobilization, total warfare, and the celebration of nationalist or ethnic violence - often directed expressly at the enemy's civilian population.
In this frightening and surprising novel, the eccentric, wayward genius of Commissaire Adamsberg is pitted against the deep-rooted mysteries of one Alpine village's history and a very present problem: wolves. Disturbing things have been happening up in the French mountains; more and more sheep are being found with their throats torn out. The evidence points to a wolf of unnatural size and strength. However Suzanne Rosselin thinks it is the work of a werewolf. Then Suzanne is found slaughtered in the same manner. Her friend Camille attempts, with Suzanne's son Soliman and her shepherd, Watchee, to find out who, or what, is responsible and they call on Commissaire Adamsberg for help. 'Ingenious. Slick, creepy and full of engaging odd characters, this thriller is a class act' Independent
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER 2018 When two Parisian women are murdered in their homes, the police suspect young accordionist Clément Vauquer. As he was seen outside both of the apartments in question, it seems like an open-and-shut case. Desperate for a chance to prove his innocence, Clément disappears. He seeks refuge with old Marthe, the only mother figure he has ever known, who calls in ex-special investigator Louis Kehlweiler. Louis is soon faced with his most complex case yet and he calls on some unconventional friends to help him. He must show that Clément is not responsible and solve a fiendish riddle to find the killer...