Verdun: The Longest Battle of the Great War
"Brilliant." --Los Angeles Review of Books"The horrors have been described often and elaborately, but Mr. Jankowski is skillful enough that his accounts still provoke." --Wall Street Journal"One of its foremost virtues is to brush aside the insistence of modern folklore.... that Verdun imposed on its participants horrors unprecedented in history." --Max Hastings,The Sunday Times"Jankowski recognizes the significance of the battle that Maurice Genevoix, a French novelist and World War I veteran, was said to have called 'the battle-symbol of the entire 1914-1918 war...' He relies heavily on the memoirs, journals and letters of those who were present during the battle to complete his work." --Armymagazine"Jankowski has written a superb, definitive popular account of Verdun through the eyes of soldiers, military leaders, and citizens of the two nations." --Publishers Weekly"Jankowski's revisionist book is a major achievement...The writing throughout is of the highest order... At every stage, Jankowski integrates the military narrative with broader political and cultural dimensions... Jankowski's book offers a model history of warfare." --Philip Jenkins,Books &Culture"Paul Jankowski'sVerdunis a great book, truly a masterwork of modern literature.  On a much studied event (25 percent of all the many French books on World War I have been about the battle of Verdun), he has given us a work of rare originality and creativity.  And he has done it with old fashioned virtues of grace and refinement.   This is not only a new interpretation of a major subject. It is also a new model of how history might be written on many subjects." --David Hackett Fischer"This fine book straddles two generations of writing on the Great War. It is a superb account of the unfolding of the battle from the viewpoint of the commanders, and a moving narrative of the tenacity of small groups of men pushed beyond the limits of human endurance." --Jay Winter, Yale University"Paul Jankowski provides a balanced, scholarly account of the pivotal Battle of Verdun. Within a smoothly flowing narrative, he highlights critical themes in both traditional military history and the social history of warfare. This book is a first-stop source for students of the First World War, and a superb survey of what arguably stands the greatest battle in human history." --Edward G. Lengel, author ofTo Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918"Paul Jankowski'sVerdunis the first major study of the battle to appear in English for many years, and the first to draw fully on archival research on both sides. Jankowski presents a thoughtful, original, and moving account, full of insights into the course of the fighting and its subsequent commemoration and impact." --David Stevenson, author ofCataclysm:The First World War as Political TragedyandWith our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918