A story of personalities

Outstanding account of the Great War from an English point of view. Hochschild covers most of the military action of the war, but the further the action gets from the Western Front, the more summarized it becomes. What he's really after are the personalities: the generals John French and Douglas Haig; antiwar activists like French's sister Charlotte Despard, Sylvia Pankhurst, and Bertrand Russell; government officials like Alfred Milner and Keir Hardie. It's a grim, bloody story, and Hochschild thinks it wasn't worth it. What was gained, he wonders, to compensate for opening the door to the horrors of total war, mechanized slaughter, and genocide? Arthur Morey narrates the details in a matter-of-fact way, but his voice gathers a hard edge as he recounts events like the execution of men who were emotionally shattered by the constant bombardment, or the ghastly experience of watching new shells further shredding the remains of buried comrades. When he gets to the epilogue, the march of numbers (one million, ten million, fifty million) becomes almost unbearable.

17 people found this helpful

Excellent

Here's another excellent history from Adam Hochschild. He takes a subject, World War I, which has been thoroughly worked by many historians for many decades, and uncovers new material and a new angle from which to view the war. He presents harsh truths, but in ways so intriguing and well researched that you cannot stop listening.

10 people found this helpful

Should be a guide to history writing

Anyone who feels the tale of war can be told by totaling up troop and equipment will be disapointed with this full juicy and robust telling of WW1.
The reasons and ego's behind the decisions that killed millions of sons and daughters is brought to the fore and fills in preconceptions regarding the period and attitudes of the goverments and popular figures. In some ways more importantly, the family bickering of "kings and queens" that brought a generation of bright and energetic young men to it's knees is what I found most repulsive.
A cautionary tale of the highest order and should be taught in classrooms or given to your kids. It is open ended and I think honest. Every chapter made me want to purse a side issue that was brought up, but not really expanded upon which is a gift in itself.
Well done Adam and I hope you write again soon.

8 people found this helpful

Fascinating and brilliantly done

This book, much to my surprise, is never dull, always insightful, and utterly fascinating. I never knew much about the history of the war and this book brings it to life. It gives a wonderful sense of perspective on the times and political realities of the era both in a broad sense of the politics of nations, but also through the lives of individuals; soldiers, pacifists, generals.

Both the writing and narration are superb and you will find yourself savoring every minute of this excellent effort.

8 people found this helpful

The best WW I history I have ever read.

The attention to detail involving the causes of WW I and the vivid descriptions of the WW I trench warfare makes this an exceptional history and a very well-written book.

7 people found this helpful

Another fruitless piece on WWI

Would you try another book from Adam Hochschild and/or Arthur Morey?

Probably not

What about Arthur Morey’s performance did you like?

The performance was good enough to keep me listening for 6 chapters that seemed to have little to do with the actual war.

Any additional comments?

I continue to fail at finding a good historical piece that tells the story of WWI without boring me to tears. I have tried several, and the reviews of this one led me to believe this might be the one, but alas, 6 chapters in I just couldn't take it anymore. Lots about European players, family histories, and love affairs, but nothing I detected that had much to do with the war. If anyone can find me a book that reads like Ambrose or the many great first hand acccounts of WWII in Europe about the earlier war please tell me. I will keep searching for something that tells the war stories, rather than about politics and romances of the early 20th century. Ugh.

5 people found this helpful

The Rise of the Working Class

I have spent the past 6 months reading books and University classes on World War 1. I feel I am getting to know this subject in all it's aspects. This book is a bit different in that Hochschild chose to show how the war effected some key families he chose to write about in depth. Hochschild provides vivid descriptions of the world on the brink of war, during the war and then its aftermath. He provides vivid insights to the empire proponents(Milner), socialist dissenters( Kein Hardie) radical suffragette's such as the Pankhurst women. It was supprising how much time he spent on the suffragettes. He wrote about how families were torn apart by various members on different sides of the war, such as Sir Gen John French head of the British Army and his sister Charlotte Desparde who was a suffragette and ran charity shops in the poorest section of London and was against the war, she was also an active member of the labour party and a novelist. He pointed out the forming of a department of propaganda using famous author's such as Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to provide positive information to help recruit men for the army. This was done again in WWII. He provided an in-depth view of Bertrand Russell and his opposition of the war.
As in many books he covers the stupidity of the Army leaders in fighting with tactics from the last war which caused the wasteful loss of many men. This book spend more in-depth coverage of those who opposed the war either pacifist such the Quakers to socialist. World War 1 brought about the decline of the royal houses of Europe and the Peer's and saw the rise to power of the working middle class families. Women and working men got the vote in England. Hochschild points out the mistakes made that led to WWII.
Arthur Morey did an excellent job narrating the book. Hochschild did a good job of reporting as a historian and avoided prejudice view points This is a must read for those who want to learn about what happened to those who opposed the war and the politics of the time.

2 people found this helpful

A history of silence

Excellent history of the few in England who objected to fighting a war in France but too few for a great narrative. Some interesting characters and tales but thin. Still, informative and well written.

2 people found this helpful

Unbelievable

This is one of the best books I've ever read (well, heard.) Hochschild weaves hundreds of strands of history into a gripping and compelling narrative. As soon as I finished I just started it over. And Arthur Morey does a superb job - even if the book wasn't so fantastic, it would be worth listening to just to hear him.

2 people found this helpful

The Horrible Costs of War

This is not a traditional history of WWI. While it covers most of the major episodes on the Western Front and many important developments on the English home front, the book’s focus is on the terrible costs of war. The obvious costs, of course, were the casualties and their families’ suffering, but the book’s scope extends to costs to civil liberties, civil discourse and family relations, in a word, civilization.

Hochschild argues that WWI was both unnecessary and particularly wasteful. Even accepting his arguments, however, Hochschild doesn’t posit how the war could have been avoided. Instead, he presents a compelling explanation of how all the major players were eagerly anticipating the war.

Hochschild argues convincingly that the conduct of the war was incompetent. The generals were unprepared for, and unwilling to adapt to, modern industrial warfare. Hochschild argues less successfully that WWI was the first “total war”. Civilians have always been casualties of war. WWI was different because air power and bigger artillery could hurt civilians distant from the battlefields. Further, while WWI was the first to feature machine guns, tanks and planes on both sides, much of the North’s success in the US Civil War came from its industrial might.

Hochschild also argues that the effects of the war were uniformly negative. Again, the casualties were horrendous, and the effects on families and the economy were terrible. The war spawned the Russian Revolution, and the aftermath of the war was so disastrous that it led to Nazism. Besides the tsar, the war destroyed the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman monarchies. Hochschild argues that the British monarchy survived because it was limited, not absolute, and thus popular discontent had outlets short of revolution in Britain that were not available in other monarchies.

Collapse of royal autocracy is not a negative, but its replacement by totalitarianism is one. The new regimes in Russia and eventually Germany and Austria were crueler than the old order destroyed by WWI, but I question whether the same could be said of Turkey.

Hochschild also explains how the war sped up both women’s suffrage and colonial independence movements. Further, while the British monarchy survived, the social order was forever altered. An intriguing question is whether the horrors of WWI and the collapse of the old order helped change the social mindset such that a casual disregard of casualties, at least in democracies, would no longer be acceptable.

Even if the answer is yes, however, it doesn’t make WWI a positive, nor does it discount Hochschild’s argument that the war was unnecessary and wasteful. A more nuanced analysis, however, would have been valuable.

1 person found this helpful