The Road to Verdun. France, Nationalism and the First World War (Repost)
Ian Ousby - The Road to Verdun. France, Nationalism and the First World War
Jonathan Cape | 2002 | ISBN: 0224059904 | English | 304 Pages | PDF | 120.94 MB
Jonathan Cape | 2002 | ISBN: 0224059904 | English | 304 Pages | PDF | 120.94 MB
This book focuses more on why French and German armies fought at Verdun, and why the battle continued so relentlessly for so long, rather than how it was fought. The book deepens the reader’s understanding of the social and political situation in France before the Great War, and characterises the determination of the French army to hold on at Verdun as being closely associated with the pain felt in France through the humiliations of the Franco-Prussian War. It’s a beautifully written book and the late Mr Ousby has a style which is perceptive and at times entrancing. But it’s also a book which is far from straightforward and in which the arguments deployed can be complex and sometimes unwieldy.