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The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916 (Penguin History)
 
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The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916 (Penguin History) (Paperback)

by Alistair Horne (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 388 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (28 Jun 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140170413
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140170412
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.7 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 62,353 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #50 in  Books > History > Military History > Armed Forces > Land Forces
    #74 in  Books > History > Europe > World War I 1914-1918

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  • See Complete Table of Contents

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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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The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916 (Penguin History)
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Exemplary WWI history: thought-provoking masterpiece, 31 Jul 2002
By Dobester (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
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.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough and brilliant exposition of the battle of Verdun, 16 May 2002
By Robert Jones (South Wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An essential introduction to WW1, 2 May 2000
By A Customer
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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars 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 9 months ago by Teemacs

5.0 out of 5 stars 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 9 months ago by Hector Parkinson

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
This book is excellent - if you are interested in Verdun and the Great War generally, this is just the sort of book needed for any aspect of it. Read more
Published 11 months ago by D. Spencer

3.0 out of 5 stars Outdated
This is a very nice book to read, but it is outdated. A number of important studies has been published since Alistair Horne published hes book. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Pulkkinen

5.0 out of 5 stars My very first Great War book
That is, I got it from the library many years ago, translated into Danish. Back when WW1 was not that long ago and the old people could tell me how it was. Read more
Published on 18 May 2007 by Unmack

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece of Historical Writing

Without question this is one of the best, most informative, most readable, most thorough and most moving books on an aspect of The Great War, that I have read so far. Read more
Published on 29 April 2007 by Wilf

1.0 out of 5 stars Too anglocentric
I bought this book because there were few works on Verdun in English - presumably because the British were not participants in the actual battle. Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2001 by steven.fovargue@btinternet.com

3.0 out of 5 stars A useful introduction to Verdun 1916
The Price of Glory provides an accessible and useful introduction to the monumental battle at Verdun in 1916. Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars The defininirive and most glorious moment for C20 France.
Horne reflects all the tragedy and glory of Verdun in both human and historical terms. An excellent work that sets Verdun in the context of the French psyche. Read more
Published on 18 Jun 1999

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