Replies

For a really different perspective try John Terraine’s DOUGLAS HAIG: THE EDUCATED SOLDIER and/or Terraine’s shorter THE WESTERN FRONT 1914-1918. In both he defends the Brit from the usual comic book depiction as the butcher of the Western Front and argues that Haig was destined for victory while Napoleon was destined for defeat (citing the nature and abilities of both men).

For the Eastern Front others have recommended Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s AUGUST 1914. I love Solzhenitsyn’s philosophy of history and how certain short time periods are “knots” of incredible events and change such as another knot in November of 1916 (lead-up events to the October 1917 Revolution). In AUGUST 1914 Solzhenitsyn writes of a prewar schoolboy calling out to the elderly Leo Tolstoy and relates their reflections on philosophy and other exchanges of Russian home front thinking. It is not just the military maneuvers and the epic battle of Tannenberg. It is written like a novel but it is based upon true narratives and accounts that Solzhenitsyn collected.

In CANCER WARD Solzhenitsyn hit the top of his craft and the great Bethell and Burg translation makes the Engish version an easy read for an AS lengthy book. It is largely an autobiographical experience but goes again into the philosophy of life itself. I think it is his greatest work.