The Western Front: Ordinary Soldiers and the Defining Battles of World War I - Couverture rigide

For the British World War I was the Western Front, the trench line stretching from the Swiss Frontier to the North Sea. It was there that most of the 9 million British and Dominion soldiers who enlisted during the war served, and there that most of the 947,000 killed met their deaths. Richard Holmes brings the Western Front to life in this richly detailed and authoritative book, in a way that goes deep beneath scholarly debate, ripping off the veneer of clich which now covers the war as it really was. The book, like the series, is both chronological and thematic, following the story of the Western Front whilst picking out particular episodes in its history to highlight more general themes. Individual events are thus used to illuminate wider truths to form a descriptive yet deeply analytical book. 'Of the myriad accounts available, few are better than Holmes: authoritative, concise, wide-ranging and readable; it is hard to see how it can be bettered.' Nigel Jones, 'History Magazine'

For most British people, the First World War was the Western Front, the trench line stretching from the Swiss Frontier to the North Sea. It was there that the majority of nearly nine million British and Dominion soldiers who enlisted during the war served, and where most of the 947,000 who were killed met their deaths.

This detailed but accessible account covers everything from how the front was created and the experiences of the British Army in France, to the battle of Verdun and the last hundred days of the war. Holmes' concise and heartfelt narrative is illustrated with photographs, diagrams, maps and quotations that bring this inhuman four years of history to life.

In one of the best single-volume histories of the First World War available, Holmes skillfully clarifies the complexities of the Western Front, and highlights the political, military and human dilemmas of this, the most bitter and bloody of conflicts.