Recommendations from our site
“It’s about the battle of Verdun in 1916 and covers the entire history. Out of the three Alistair Horne books I’ve read, it’s definitely the one I rank the highest. It’s incredibly interesting, almost taking Verdun, the battle, day by day. It’s very detailed and feels really human. It has stories about people delivering food while the fighting happens, about the air war, the political messages, generals being changed, and how little things cause massive outcomes in the end. For example, a Thuringian peasant was responsible for the taking of Fort Douaumont, the biggest fort in the entirety of the Verdun complex. The French were not defending it and he just crawled through a window. Later, two German companies turned up and took Fort Douaumont without a shot.” Read more...
The Best History Books for Teenagers
Alex (age 16), Children
“I included this because I was hugely influenced both by the book and by actually visiting Verdun…The point about Verdun is that it was the most unbelievably destructive battle ever fought on the European continent, west of the old Soviet Union. It had an enormous symbolic significance…The coming together of France and Germany, which was the very beginning of the European project, is to me one of the most remarkable things that has ever happened in world history. Verdun was the most horrific example, where at least 700,000 men were wounded or killed in a front of 15 miles. By a stroke of genius, the elites of battered post-war Germany and equally battered post-war France realised that they couldn’t go on like this, and that is what Verdun symbolises for me. It is also a very good book.” Read more...
The best books on The End of The West
David Marquand, Political Scientist
