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44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Readable Book About An Incomprehensible War, November 15, 2004
I have read a number of histories of World War I. I believe this war was the most important event of the twentieth century, creating world political and social conditions we are still trying to work through today. At this point, 90 years after the start of the war, it is difficult to find an author with a new take on taking us through this history. Mr. Persico has made a valiant attempt and, for the most part, he succeeds.
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 1918 is, of course, the moment when World War I came to an end. What Mr. Persico does is tell the story of the war with its last day as his starting point. He does this for a couple reasons. First, he wants to make the point that, as the armistice had been signed before this day, the casualties of November 11th were pointless. He then uses the senseless casualties of the last day to bring to life much of the senselessness of the previous four years. He needs to do this to bring the scope of the war into a focus that he can cover in 400 readable pages, using the stories of many individual soldiers to get at the heart of the matter. And we do manage to get a lot of personal stories here: from the great (Foch, Pershing) to the soon to be great (McArthur, Truman, Patton) to the lesser known. And he gives us at least a taste of the German side with, of course, Hitler, Ludendorff and others.
The difficulty with the book is that the jumping around in time and place occasionally makes things difficult to follow. And he often gets away from his "last day" conceit, spending most of his pages on other days which makes his conceit seem somewhat artificial. Though, to his credit, he does tie everything together rather well by the end with a brief but lucid commentary on the effect of the war.
Mr. Persico may not have written the best book on the war but he has given us a fine addition to the literature that can be read in a reasonable amount of time. A quality many tomes on the topic do not share.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Uneven, but Required Reading for WWI, August 24, 2008
This review is from: Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918 World War I and Its Violent Climax (Paperback)
The author's point concerning the sheer stupidity and callousness of Pershing and other allied commanders in continuing to attack German positions AFTER THE ARMISTICE HAD BEEN SIGNED is earthshaking and almost incomprehensible to today's reader. Yet there it is; probably 6,500 additional American, Canadian, French and British soldiers gave their lives in the six hours between 5:00 AM when the armistice was signed and 11:00 AM when the cease fire took effect. And this was not because of German perfidy or perverseness -- it was due to our own commanders continuing to send troops over the top to attack German trenches.
The French and British can be almost forgiven for ordering Americans to die up to the last moment; they looked upon the US troops as Johnny-come-latelys who were going to grab the spoils without paying their butcher's bill. But nothing can excuse Pershing, Bullard, and other American commanders for ordering their troops to attack and die. It is impossible to read Persico's treatise without experiencing mounting anger, but this last date, at whom or what?
I will be eternally grateful to author Persico for making this imformation public -- like probably most others I had accepted official reports of casualties (woefully understated for 11/11 in a cover-up) and did not realize the abject criminality of those involved. There were many rationalizations, and Persico offers them all, but to little effect. For this I would give the author 5 stars.
Unfortunately, the author flits back and forth from the morning of November 11th, 1918, to other days in the war starting with its beginning. Most of the coverage is through ancedotes from letters and works by participants, but the overall effect detracts from the book's main theme and makes for confusing reading. On this basis the book becomes a personalized narrative, rating only three stars. With respect to learning about the war in a wider context, the book is simply unsuitable.
The concluding chapters feature probably the author's best work. His provocative questions and thoughts concerning the armistice of 1918 as leading to World War Two are worth reading. Some of it is light, such as overlooking that the British continued their blockade of Germany until the Versailles Treaty was signed (in a very large sense, continuing the war after the armistice), and the proffered idea that the war needed to be fought through to Germany's total defeat to eliminate any chance of resurgent militarism. It needs to be remembered in this context that no European War had been fought at that time since the Romans to the complete and unconditional surrender of a nation. Prior to WWI, wars were fought to acquire land, resources, hegemony, or to place a particular ruler on a throne, and negotiated treaties had been the norm.
Another item treated lightly was that had Wilson not brought the US into the war through propaganda and pretense, the parties most probably would have had to negotiate a peace after fighting to exhaustion on both sides. Clearly this point was reached in 1918, and it was only the American intervention that brought about the German collapse. One is tempted to believe that Hitler would not have come to power and World War Two would not have occurred had the US stayed out of WWI. Unfortunately, Persico does not expound on this thesis.
There were a few minor problems such as saying the Germans said, "Der Krieg ist ueber." That's a literal translation for "The war is over", but a German would have said, "Der Krieg ist vorbei" or something more idiomatic. Overall, however, the prose is excellent and well-edited and the author's writing style is crisp and engaging.
In conclusion, author Persico makes many valid points and has produced an important work that adds to the World War One literature. At this late date, that is an achievement in itself. I recommend purchasing this book.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Captivating Book, Well Worth Reading, April 29, 2005
"11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour" by Joseph Persico is an interesting and captivating book covering not only the final moments of the Great War but also offering a general history of the war from its beginning in 1914. The author follows a number of characters, great and small, throughout the narrative. We follow the paths and final fate of a number of soldiers from America, Britain, France, and Germany. We also get glimpses of those who control their destiny, Foch, Haig, Hindenburg and Pershing.
The story is well told and you'll find yourself following the lives of these men and women intensely, mostly with the knowledge of what is to come but still drawn into the final agonising moments before the end. The book can jump about a little, from 1914 to 1918, as mentioned by previous reviewers, however I did not find that this detracted from the story and felt it worked well enough.
The book has received a few negative reviews in my country (Australia), mainly for the fact that the author tends to miss the other allies (Australia & New Zealand) who were fighting along side the Americans. The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) served from 1915 to 1918 on the Western Front and as a whole suffered a casualty rate of 65%, the highest of any Allied army in WW1. However I can see that this book has been written mainly for an American audience and I think it has done well.
The author's intent, to show the terribly tragedy of that final day, the waste of soldiers lives by Generals in an attempt to comply with criminal inept and stupid orders from higher up comes through strongly. Regardless of which nation those soldiers served, it's a well-told story and one that needed to be told.
I have read a quite a number of books on the Great War but this is one of the first to bring home the futility of some of the actions carried out by supposedly intelligent leaders & commanders. I hope that we never forget the sacrifice made by all the combatants, willing or not, in this most terrible War.
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