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Product Description
Product Description
The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles. Its aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death and a battleground whose once fertile terrain is even now a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, continuously in print for over fifty years, is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the battle and the men who fought there. It shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War to the minds of those who waged it, the traditions that bound them and the world that gave them the opportunity.
About the Author
One of Britain’s greatest historians, Sir Alistair Horne, CBE, is the author of several famous books on French history as well as a two-volume life of Harold Macmillan.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Price of Glory is one of the best written books on the First World War, and certainly the best on Verdun. Alistair Horne goes beyond description of the strategic forces that produced the battle, the battle itself and its effects. What he has written is more like a biography of the belligerents, describing the romantic military fantasies of the opposing armies' high commands, a combination of supreme national pride barely distinguishable from triumphalist racism and absolute faith in the cleansing power of mass destruction. Mr. Horne also makes the story come alive through his sympathetic, humane documentation of the miserable lives of the ordinary soldiers and field officers on both sides. As masterful a piece of work as any of Mr. Horne's books on France, and highly recommended.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this magnificent book, the author makes a good case for the battle of Verdun to be considered the 'worst' battle in history - in no other battle was the slaughter so intense, so prolonged and concentrated in such a small area. It certainly puts a perspective on our peacetime sensibilities, when, for example, a train crash costing 20 lives is considered a 'disaster'. At Verdun, both sides considered 2000 lives a reasonable price to pay to gain, or defend, a minor tactical feature. And they paid it, day after day after day.
In this book the author gets the balance exactly right between explaining the strategic deliberations of the commanders and describing the experience of the battle as perceived by the men who had to fight it. The terrible effects of high explosives on the human body are described in graphic detail, but for the majority of participants in the battle, this was all they experienced - having to endure relentless shelling by the enemy (or often their own) artillery, without even seeing an enemy infantryman.
If I had the criticise the book, it would be that some of the generalisations the author makes about national characteristics (the Germans being ruthless and efficient, the French being temperamental and disorganised) are less easily acceptable now than in the less 'politically correct' times in which the book was written. Despite this minor quibble, however, this book should be read by anyone interested in that most terrible, and futile, of wars. It was rightly called the Great War.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Takes the reader from the different strategical conceptions held by French and German armies at the start of the Great War, through local tactics down to the experiences of soldiers in the line at regimental and company level. No factor, whether technical, political or psychological is omitted. Mr.Horne has the gift of making the factors determining the outcome of the battle accessible to the lay reader. This is military history as it should be written - not glamourising the battle in any way, but yet explaining how the poilu was able to hold out and, in the end, prevail against a prepared and determined enemy. Gripping and heartbreaking at the same time.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"Price of Glory" by Alistair Horne
I first studied this book for "o"level History. It is a very clear, readable and accurate account of what was probably the worst battle in History. Read more
Published 3 months ago by giles lewis
Very readable account
This is a well-written and very readable account of one of the most terrible of Great War battles. Although the book is now a little dated it is still an excellent introduction to... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Cat
Verdun France 1916
"The Price of Glory" is a true masterpiece of First World War history with the author striking a perfect balance in recounting the events of the Battle of Verdun. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Baraniecki Mark Stuart
... and of folly, is a heavy one indeed.
This is the second book in Horne's excellent trilogy on the three Franco-German conflicts that spanned a 70 year period. Read more
Published 17 months ago by John P. Jones III
Paradigm shifting
Firstly, the negatives:
I don't speak French. I'm British, if I want myself understood by French people, I just speak louder and slower. Read more
I don't speak French. I'm British, if I want myself understood by French people, I just speak louder and slower. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Combover
A remarkable work by any definition
It is difficult to understand the battle of Verdun because, to paraphrase Alistair Horne, it seemed to develop into a self consuming fire that promised never to end until the last... Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2010 by A. Gwyer
Mad Guys in Charge
My interest was sparked through spending a lot of time in rural France in the last couple of years - seeing the long lists of WW1 names on the war memorials, in even small... Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2009 by M. Gray
Verdun, text book history writing
I have just spent two days visiting the battlefield. For anyone with a modest imagination this is a harrowing experience. Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2009 by Stewart Murray
Oddly incomplete
This is the middle volume of Alastair Horne's trilogy on Franco-German conflicts (the other two cover the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the Blitzkrieg offensive in 1940). Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2008 by Teemacs
A classic account on one of the bloodiest battles of WW1
I bought this realising I knew next to nothing about the French experience in WW1 - Verdun being reduced to `Falkenhayn's mincing machine' in a poorly remembered history lesson... Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2008 by Hector Parkinson
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