American Front [Audiobook] (CD) [Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Harry Turtledove (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2005

Hugo Award winner Harry Turtledove is the master of alternate history. In American Front he envisions World War I as it may have been if fought on American soil. The United States and Germany clash with the Confederacy, France, and Britain as the machines of modern warfare litter the landscape with carnage. Meanwhile, oppressed southern blacks head toward a fateful confrontation.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• ISBN-10: 1402557604
• ISBN-13: 978-1402557606
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,406,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Harry Turtledove is the award-winning author of the alternate-history works The Man with the Iron Heart; The Guns of the South; How Few Remain (winner of the Sidewise Award for Best Novel); the Worldwar saga: In the Balance, Tilting the Balance, Upsetting the Balance, and Striking the Balance; the Colonization books: Second Contact, Down to Earth, and Aftershocks; the Great War epics: American Front, Walk in Hell, and Breakthroughs; the American Empire novels: Blood & Iron, The Center Cannot Hold, and Victorious Opposition; and the Settling Accounts series: Return Engagement, Drive to the East, The Grapple, and In at the Death. Turtledove is married to fellow novelist Laura Frankos. They have three daughters: Alison, Rachel, and Rebecca.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellant Alternate History., January 14, 2000

By 

Michael J. Berquist - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Front (The Great War, Book 1) (Hardcover)

Harry Turtledove is probably the acknowledged master of alternate history fiction today. His "Guns of the South" is a classic of the genre and more recently he has turned his attention towards an interesting alternate time-line: what would the First World War have been like if the South had won the Civil War? The answer is "The Great War: American Front", as exciting and interesting a book as I have ever read.

In Turtledove's scenario, the South won the Civil War, then emerged victorious in the Second Mexican War, which saw a humbled US lose to the combined power of the CS and England. As the Great War begins, the United States is allied with Germany (and presumably Austria-Hungary, though this is not mentioned) while the Confederate States are allied with the triple powers- England, France and Russia (with Japan thrown in for good measure).

Historically, the addition of the US to the German/Austrian side would have dramatically tilted the balance of power against the triple powers. Not only would they have been deprived of American armies which contributed to the winning of the war against Germany, but England must now also contend with the American invasion of Canada and the presence of the American navy on the high seas. Indeed, it was American soldiers who helped to save the beleaguered armies of England and France in the pivotal days of 1918, when the German army came perilously close to capturing Paris and perhaps winning the war.

The events of "The Great War: American Front" are quite plausible as well. Slaves in the CS, whose position is quite like that of the serfs of Russia in 1914, take to reading Marx. The US must quell a Mormon uprising in Utah. Poison gas is used to break the stalemate in Kentucky . . . all events that are quite plausible and dramatically told in Turtledove's excellent prose. The First World War was the great upheavel of Europe's old political and social order. The effect in America might have been similar. The reader must give Turtledove kudos for taking the might-have-beens of the story and making them feel like they did actually happen.

As good as Turtledove's work is, "The Great War: American Front" has some weaknesses. For one, there are far too many characters. Do we really need two different perspectives on the U.S. occupation of Canada? Do we really need so many looks at the war in the trenches? Sometimes characters tend to blend together, or they take time away from another whose story you may want to follow more closely. Also, this reader would have enjoyed longer looks at the naval aspects of this war. Historically, Theodore Roosevelt's interest in naval affairs was such to suggest that the U.S. Navy in 1914 would have been a formidable fighting force, quite the equal of the Royal Navy. The peeks at the naval dimensions of the war Turtledove grants his readers are too slight for my taste.

This reader would also enjoy a longer look at the political implications of the war. The US has a two-party system divided between the Democrats and Socialists. I would love to see how Turtledove might portray this at work. CSA President Woodrow Wilson and USA President Theodore Roosevelt make little more than cameo appearances, leaving the reader to wonder what the decision-making process of the two respective governments is actually like.

On the balance: a magnificent book. I can hardly wait to find out what happens next.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Americans fight a grim World War 1 - on American soil, August 15, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Front (The Great War, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the kind of alternate history (or (science) fiction in general) I really like. Sense of wonder: what would have happened if the South had won the American Civil War? And: would they have been allies or even neutral during WW1 - or each others enemies? Suspension of disbelief: given that, and the fact that WW1 really took place, I had no trouble 'believing' the events that took place in American Front.

The story: 32 years after the USA lost (and the CSA won) the second war between the states, World War 1 starts in Europe, just like it did in reality. But since the Confederacy has been allies with Britain and France now for more than half a century, and the Union does have sort of een ally in Imperial Germany, they both plunge into the conflict and start fighting each other for the third time - a 'classic' WW1 fight.

Unfortunately, I read this book before I read Harry Turtledove's How Few Remain, a sort of sequel to the series. A couple of things in American Front then became more clear to me.

Like in How Few Remain, there is not really a side I am more inclined to feel sympathy for. Both the USA as the CSA treat negroes with contempt. This is not very unlikely, since in our own 1960s, there was still a sort of an 'apartheid' in America! Of course I feel more sympathy for the USA, since they did not have slavery (nor did the CSA after 1882); but the trouble in my eyes is, is that the USA just should have let the new CSA go after 1862 - slavery probably would have ended no later than 1900 or so. There would have been no feelings of hatred or wounded pride. And: the USA should have swallowed their pride in 1881 - just let the CSA have those two Mexican provinces. And when WW1 starts, the USA can remain neutral, the CSA can join the Allies, and WW1 can end much sooner.

But in this universe, the North/USA have gone to war with the South/CSA several times and they lost every time. They can do nothing else but to fight them a third time.

I'm almost afraid which side will win - because if the Allies lose, Canada will 'only' lose some territory, hopefully not too much; but the CSA will most likely simply cease to exist, and the US occupation will be much more grim than a post-1865-style occupation. And think of the disastrous things that will happen in Europe, if Germany wins there. If on the other hand the USA loses, it will (again) lose 'only' some territory, but it will be even more inclined to have feelings of revenge and retaliation. You have to remember: by 1914, the hearts and the feelings of both the USA and the CSA are now those of two separate countries. Maybe the best solution is: the Germans lose in Europe, the USA wins in America???

I want to know how this dreadful war ends and I'm going to read the entire series. It is a magnificent book. There are some flaws, like (in my eyes) not enough maps of the different fronts and events, but on the whole I would recommend The Great War: American Front to everybody who likes to read alternate history.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mustard Gas on the Mississippi, November 1, 2003

By 

Maddi Hausmann Sojourner "madhaus" (Silicon Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Front (The Great War, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

It's most unquiet on the Western Front... The Great War fought on American soil. Harry Turtledove has written a spectacular work of alternate history.

Great War: American Front is the first of three books in a trilogy, but you really must read How Few Remain beforehand. Go ahead, I'll wait. How Few Remain (HFR) gives the backstory: Confederate States defeat the USA in 1862 by not losing critical battle plans, and in 1881 the USA itches for a rematch, only to lose again. By 1911 the USA and CSA have been seperate countries for 50 years, with plenty of resentment. The USA, having been defeated twice, is not the economic powerhouse it became in our timeline.

Tensions mount between the two countries and their allies. CSA is allied with England and France, USA with Germany. The European struggle is offstage, as American Front covers the war from multiple viewpoints in North America. British Canada is invaded by the USA and becomes Occupied territory; one family secretly resists, another slowly accepts their new overlords. Utah, still a US territory because the government is still fighting the Mormons, who are being supplied with weapons from the CSA. And in the CSA, Marxism is being taught... among the ex-slaves, and the USA is running weapons to them! General Custer is observed through the eyes of his long-suffering aide, take a ride on a CSA submarine, observe enemy intelligence in a Washington DC coffeehouse.

Multiple viewpoints, numerous agendas, plenty of intrigue, and laughably bad sex scenes! What more could anyone want? And if you enjoy this book, there are two more in the Great War series, followed by three more in the American Empire series, leading up to the forthcoming American World War II!