Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Eye-Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I by John Ellis ISBN: 0-8018-3947-5 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (20 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The Forgotten War as Seen by the Soldier
Comment: EYE-DEEP IN HELL: TRENCH WARFARE IN WORLD WAR I is a history of the soldier's life on the Western Front of World War I. Thoroughly researched, and written in a clear, straightforward documentary style, Ellis' survey puts the reader in the soggy, disintegrating boots of the British, Canadian, Australian, American, French or German soldier as he sat in the muddy trenches with the rats and lice and corpses and the sound of a thousand shells bursting over his head, waiting for his chance to be involved in another futile charge on the enemy trenches.
Ellis makes use of plenty of photographs, period illustrations and poetry, first-hand accounts and letters as he describes in detail the soldier's life. As can be expected, there are descriptions that will turn the reader's stomach (the wounds encountered by field doctors), but more surprisingly, there is also some grim humor to be found (the jam issued to British soldiers was almost always plum and apple, and in one account, "an issue of strawberry or raspberry jam was an historic occasion").
The insanity and short-sightedness of the generals and politicians of World War I is not entirely missing from this book, but it's not the point. This is not an overview of the war (like John Keegan's THE FIRST WORLD WAR), nor an in-depth history of one battle or campaign (like Alistair Horne's saga of Verdun THE PRICE OF GLORY). Ellis writes not about the madness of World War I, but about the madness of war itself: the "all hell" faced by the grunt paying the price for the failures of diplomats, presidents and kings. Although the British soldier (for obvious reasons) receives the most attention, all sides are taken into account, from the reasons they fought, to their daily realities on the front lines, to the confusion of battle, to the care they received in the hospital, to the disorientation they felt upon their return home.
Although this book could have benefited from a more careful proofreader (I've not seen this many typographical errors in any major university publication of comparable length), its writing is nearly flawless. It may not be the best jumping off place for an understanding of the war, but as a means of bringing history to life by living it through the eyes of the everyman, this is a great book for an understanding of World War I.
Rating: 3
Summary: A cut-&-paste job on the century's heaviest subject
Comment: This is much in the manner of Lyn MacDonald's blighter's-eye-view accounts of the Great War. It is mostly composed of soldiers' accounts of their experiences of trench life and warfare, along with the emotional, moral, and spiritual dislocation that they endured. One quote from a German soldier on leave gives an idea of what horror they lived under, yet grew familiar with. "I am restless. I hate the kitchen table at which I am writing. I lost patience over a book. I should like to push the landscape aside as if it irritated me. I must get to the Front. I must again hear the shells roaring up into the sky and the desolate valley echoing the sound. I must get back to my Company...live once again in the realm of death."
This book is not as slick as the companion to the PBS series, yet it seems rawer, more real. It is a good, economical, brief introduction to what life was like for soldiers during this terrible catastrophe.
Rating: 4
Summary: Postales desde el frente
Comment: A pesar de no ser un lector angloparlante y dado que son pocos los libros sobre la 1ra Guerra Mundial editados en idioma español, tuve que poner el diccionario a mi lado y tratar de entender los numerosos giros idiomaticos que utiliza el texto, sobre todo cuando se trata de racontos de los propios protagonistas del combate.
El libro esta muy bien presentado, los capitulos tratados en detalle y con una secuencia de fotografia que ilustran el coraje y el sufrimiento de los hombres en las trincheras.
Me parecio sobre todo interesante la parte dedicada a la alimentacion de los hombres, las peripecias que tenian que hacer los equipos de busqueda de comida y la peligrosidad e importancia de su mision, que aqui no se ve soslayada.
Ojala este libro sea traducido en algun momento al español, porque considero que todo estudioso del tema se vera favorecido y tendra acceso a una obra de notable valor.
 |
Title: Death's Men: Soldiers of the Great War by Denis Winter ISBN: 0140168222 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1993 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell ISBN: 0195133323 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: To the Last Man: Spring 1918 by Lyn MacDonald ISBN: 0786707976 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: 30 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: Good-Bye to All That : An Autobiography by Paul Fussell, Robert Graves ISBN: 0385093306 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 February, 1958 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 (Penguin History) by Alistair Horne ISBN: 0140170413 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
