- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Pimlico; New edition edition (2 Jan 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0712664300
- ISBN-13: 978-0712664301
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.7 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 500,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
The Battle of Verdun is central to the French experience of the First World War in the way that the Battle of the Somme is to the British experience of the conflict. Indeed, Verdun meant (and means) more to the French than the Somme does to the British. The very name of the battle, the largest and longest between French and German forces, carried, and continues to carry, a resonance all its own. At the time, and for decades afterwards, Verdun symbolised both the horrors of the war at their worst and something about the nature of Frenchness and what France, as a nation, meant. The road leading to the battlefield became known as La Voie Sacrée--the Sacred Way. Phrases such as General Neville's "Ils ne passeront pas" ("They shall not pass") were seen to embody an extraordinary, and particularly French, courage shown by Verdun's defenders. Ian Ousby, in his ambitious and multi-layered book, is particularly alert to the symbolism of Verdun. This is much more than a standard military history in which tactics, strategy and the movements of men across the battlefield are carefully described. As Ousby points out, tactics were often impossible in the chaos of the fighting and the deployment of men on the field was often obscure to the commanders at the time, never mind to a historian writing 80 years later. Ousby does reconstruct as best he can the events of Verdun, largely through the frequently moving accounts of ordinary soldiers, but he also ranges back in time to the Franco-Prussian War and the years of the Third Republic in search of evidence for how the French saw themselves as a nation and how they defined themselves in opposition to the "anti-France" that was Imperial Germany. The result is a vivid and thought-provoking book, which sets a bloody and terrible battle in a larger historical context.--Nick Rennison
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Malcolm Brown, Guardian
‘This is an outstanding book, rich in its insights, and written with verve and style.’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you only wants an operational description of the battle this isn't your book. However if you want understand why a nation fought till exahustion for this strip of land, why the men die, why they endure privations and almost constant fear, why France build a endurable icon upon Verdun, then this is YOUR book. And a highly, well written, book. Ousby master the issue at hand and shows a remarkable understanding of the period.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Shortly before Christmas 1915, General Erich von Falkenhayn was granted an audience with the Kaiser, to gain approval for his strategic plan codenamed Gericht. The stated purpose of the plan was to bleed the French army to death. Other distinguished historians on the Battle of Verdun, such as Alistair Horne, have translated the word Gericht as 'execution ground'. Ian Ousby, however, just as aptly translates the word more generally as 'judgement', and in the same way, re-evaluates the Battle of Verdun, providing a fresh overview of the most revered battle in recent French history.
In an articulate and a neutral stance, Ousby carefully provides the reader with a well researched look at the prevailing attitudes amid the French press of the time, which helped the society to accept, condone and prolong one of the most horrific battles of the First World War. He provides detail of the actual battle itself, whilst introducing the reader to both the influential thinkers and strategists of the two nations as well as providing an insight into the very psyche of those living in and commanding over the trenches and fortifications of Verdun.
Ousby demonstrates that Verdun came as a consequence of the Franco-Prussian War and subsequent German Unification, vividly describing the very 'Road to Verdun'. At times, with a reasoned and persuasive argument, he hints strongly at the fact that whilst the physical location of this great battle may not be so significant, this battle of complete annihilation was ultimately inevitable. Illustrating the presence of both Petain and De Gaulle at Verdun, along with the subsequent creation of Maginot Line after the war, he is able to show how it provided a stepping-stone in the development of French political and military thinking.
'The Road to Verdun' gives an essential insight for any historical expert or amateur who wishes to gain a greater understanding of the battle itself, along with the road leading up to it, and away from its devastating mark in history.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you are looking for a history or analysis of the epic battle of Verdun from a military or fighting standpoint, this is not the work for you. You will be better informed by Alistair Horne's classic "The price of glory" or Malcolm Brown's "Verdun 1916".
Ian Ousby takes a look at Verdun through a rather different lens. He concentrates on the rhetoric and symbolism of France and its relations with Prussia/Germany, and concludes that these things had an enormous bearing on the path that led to and sustained such an awful battle. The very experiences and emotions of men who were there were shaped not only by their physical experience of battle, but by their attitudes and limitations of expression that were influenced by such rhetoric.
The history of the battle itself is given only in outline, although the opening bombardment and attack and the surprisingly easy capture by the Germans of Fort Douaumont are give some deeper attention. The entirety of the battle and its phases are subsumed into one, endless, merged mass of unspeakable horror, fuelled by the many personal memoirs, letters and notes that appear to form the bulk of the author's research.
The enduring symbols of the battle, from Petain's "On les aura" to Nivelle's "Ils ne passeront pas", to the Tranchee des Baionettes, the crushed concrete of the forts and the nine villages that were never rebuilt, are all analysed and take their place in the new set of legends and myths that Verdun created for itself. Ousby does not go on to comment on how those myths formed the basis for new and inappropriate conclusions that led directly to ignominy and feat in 1940, but the reader can easily pick out the strands.
The major failings for me are the almost total absence of the German viewpoint and experience, and the reduction of Joffre to a rather boneheaded individual merely bleating for resources for his Somme offensive.
Having said that, I found this a useful work and for the most part a fascinating read. There are some central passages on long-past French history, nationalism and racism that I found slow and at one point almost made me give up, but the pace and focus on the battle itself picks up again and by the conclusion I was glad that I persisted with it.
If I was asked for advice about what to read in order to develop some understanding of French attitudes and politics at Verdun, I would place this second to Horne's "The Fall of Paris: the siege and the Commune, 1870-71 ".
Ian Ousby takes a look at Verdun through a rather different lens. He concentrates on the rhetoric and symbolism of France and its relations with Prussia/Germany, and concludes that these things had an enormous bearing on the path that led to and sustained such an awful battle. The very experiences and emotions of men who were there were shaped not only by their physical experience of battle, but by their attitudes and limitations of expression that were influenced by such rhetoric.
The history of the battle itself is given only in outline, although the opening bombardment and attack and the surprisingly easy capture by the Germans of Fort Douaumont are give some deeper attention. The entirety of the battle and its phases are subsumed into one, endless, merged mass of unspeakable horror, fuelled by the many personal memoirs, letters and notes that appear to form the bulk of the author's research.
The enduring symbols of the battle, from Petain's "On les aura" to Nivelle's "Ils ne passeront pas", to the Tranchee des Baionettes, the crushed concrete of the forts and the nine villages that were never rebuilt, are all analysed and take their place in the new set of legends and myths that Verdun created for itself. Ousby does not go on to comment on how those myths formed the basis for new and inappropriate conclusions that led directly to ignominy and feat in 1940, but the reader can easily pick out the strands.
The major failings for me are the almost total absence of the German viewpoint and experience, and the reduction of Joffre to a rather boneheaded individual merely bleating for resources for his Somme offensive.
Having said that, I found this a useful work and for the most part a fascinating read. There are some central passages on long-past French history, nationalism and racism that I found slow and at one point almost made me give up, but the pace and focus on the battle itself picks up again and by the conclusion I was glad that I persisted with it.
If I was asked for advice about what to read in order to develop some understanding of French attitudes and politics at Verdun, I would place this second to Horne's "The Fall of Paris: the siege and the Commune, 1870-71 ".
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Useful but not enthralling
Having read AJP Taylor's brief description of Verdun, I wanted a book that would describe the "mincing machine" in detail. Read more
Published on 4 May 2009 by A. Friswell
Not quite what it says it is.
Yes the battle of Verdun is here and Ousby makes the very valid link to the battle in World War 1 to the Franco-Prussian war a generation earlier. Read more
Published on 16 July 2008 by J. Duducu
Forty years of national antagonism come to a head.
Ian Ousby's masterful examination of the battle of Verdun is a triumph because it looks back to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 for the roots of the fearsome struggle which took... Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2002 by Andrew Gardiner (andrew.gardiner@morefm.co.nz)
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