Buying Options

Digital List Price:	$17.99
Print List Price:	$20.00
Kindle Price:	$2.99 Save $17.01 (85%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

Deliver to your Kindle Library

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914 – 1918 by [Louis Barthas, David L. Michelmore, Edward M. Strauss, Robert Cowley]

Follow the Authors

Louis Barthas

Edward M. Strauss

Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914 – 1918 Kindle Edition

by Louis Barthas (Author), David L. Michelmore (Editor), Edward M. Strauss (Translator), Format: Kindle Edition

651 ratings

4.4 on Goodreads

770 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$2.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$36.75

$66.50

$36.75

Paperback

"Please retry"

$20.00

$16.39

$19.50

“An exceptionally vivid memoir of a French soldier’s experience of the First World War.”—Max Hastings, New York Times bestselling author

Along with millions of other Frenchmen, Louis Barthas, a thirty-five-year-old barrelmaker from a small wine-growing town, was conscripted to fight the Germans in the opening days of World War I. Corporal Barthas spent the next four years in near-ceaseless combat, wherever the French army fought its fiercest battles: Artois, Flanders, Champagne, Verdun, the Somme, the Argonne.

First published in France in 1978, this excellent new translation brings Barthas’ wartime writings to English-language readers for the first time. His notebooks and letters represent the quintessential memoir of a “poilu,” or “hairy one,” as the untidy, unshaven French infantryman of the fighting trenches was familiarly known. Upon Barthas’ return home in 1919, he painstakingly transcribed his day-to-day writings into nineteen notebooks, preserving not only his own story but also the larger story of the unnumbered soldiers who never returned. Recounting bloody battles and endless exhaustion, the deaths of comrades, the infuriating incompetence and tyranny of his own officers, Barthas also describes spontaneous acts of camaraderie between French poilus and their German foes in trenches just a few paces apart. An eloquent witness and keen observer, Barthas takes his readers directly into the heart of the Great War.

“This is clearly one of the most readable and indispensable accounts of the death of the glory of war.”—The Daily Beast (“Hot Reads”)

Print length

473 pages
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

March 28, 2014
File size

21731 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download

Frederick James Hodges
238
Kindle Edition
in Biographies of World War I
1 offer from $5.99
Ernst Jünger
2,023
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.99
Sam Sutcliffe
56
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $6.60
Daniel Wrinn
288
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $3.99
Wiley Sword
364
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $12.99
John Keegan
944
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $14.99

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Daily Beast, "Hot Reads," March 31, 2014: After the First World War, it became the new foremost charge of writers from the many nations involved to describe the indescribable, to somehow transmit to those who hadn't seen the murderous conflict at the front just how effective man had become at destroying himself. But the literary arts can sometimes fail to capture brute realities, and it's often more helpful to turn to primary sources in such cases where merely to describe is to condemn. Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker 1914-1918, has been in print in France since the 70's, but is only now translated into English, by Edward M. Strauss, the former publisher of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. Corporal Barthas, conscripted out of his life as cooper in the French countryside at the age of 35, saw four years of near-constant fighting in some of the largest and deadliest actions of the war (and of all time): Artois, Flanders, Champagne, Verdun, the Somme, and the Argonne. The fact of his survival is unlikely enough, but he also set down everything that he saw and experienced in a series of notebooks, with no deficit of insight, opinion, or literary flair. His description of the meat-grinder of trench warfare is visceral, but he saves most of his venom for those in command: "What punishment would these inhuman generals deserve, the artisans of defeat, for ruining, spoiling, exposing to suffering and death so many precious souls?" One wonders why it took so long for an English translation--this is clearly one of the most readable and indispensable accounts of the death of the glory of war.

About the Author

Louis Barthas (1879–1952) was a cooper in a small town in southern France. Edward M. Strauss is a fundraising director in higher education and former publisher of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. He lives in New York City.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00IPJGW82
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press (March 28, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 28, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 21731 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 473 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #116,503 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #23 in WWI Biographies
- #33 in History of France
- #42 in World War I History (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
651 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Louis Barthas
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
See more on the author's page
Edward M. Strauss
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Edward M. Strauss grew up in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and earned a bachelor's degree with honors in history at Princeton. After 25 years in magazine publishing (including MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military) he is now a higher-education fundraiser. Ed lives with his wife and two daughters in New York City.
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

5 star		76%
4 star		16%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Bill Smith

Much of this was written in the trenches not afterward. Barthas did not like officers.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 23, 2022

Verified Purchase

Poilu is an extraordinary account of life in the trenches from the perspective of a French corporal in the infantry who was a perceptive, talented and succinct writer. Unlike other memoires written sometime after the war, Barthas kept a detailed journal during the war. In fact, his squad members encouraged him to write down everything so that someone, somewhere in the future might know what they experienced. Barthas writes about the things that are in his face day to day. Which means he has a lot to say about his and his comrades’ condition in the wet, cold, rat and lice infested trenches and rear areas at the hands of marginally competent officers, self-serving NCOs, and the ridiculousness of life in the army fighting a war he believed was for the benefit of rich people and politicians. He was not a military historian, and at one point he mentions that his regiment changed hands from one division to another, and he estimated that 80% of the troops had no idea what division they had ever been in. Battalion commanders play a bit part, incompetent captains are more prominent, and he acknowledges and describes in more detail some variation in platoon leaders (Lts and warrant officers or “adjutants”). Barthas describes the horror of war, but what was more striking to me was the familiar absurdity of military life. Any reader who has served among the enlisted ranks will recognize his attitude as a long-suffering grunt in the field or deck-ape at sea, and the authenticity he and his attitude bring to his account of life in the trenches is a rare treat for WWI buffs.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Clifton C. Hawkins

Wonderful: How Official Murder/Suicide Cults [National Armies] Entrap Their Victims

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

Poilu is best understood not as a war book, but as a narrative explaining how and why people willingly march to their own slaughter at the bidding of sadistic, power-mad commanders who obviously care nothing whatever for them. In that sense, the book is about human psychology, and has universal import. It is one of the very few narratives written by an ordinary soldier, whose plight, as the author says, is simply unknowable to their officers.
Barthas, a self-professed socialist, internationalist, and pacifist, willingly obeys orders he fully understands are insane and murderous, issued by people he views with incandescent hatred and contempt. Almost all his friends die senselessly, even assuming the justness of the war itself [which the author does not]. Not only are soldiers sent in heaps to almost certain death; they also suffer constant torture and abuse by haughty officers who appropriate the best food and most comfortable quarters for themselves while forcing their men to freeze and starve. Death and mutilation seem also the least of the common soldiers' worries. At every lull in the carnage, brutal officers force their charges to endure meaningless, degrading, and unending drudgery; shivering, starving, manure-covered and lice-infected poilu suffer humiliating marches, parades, and drills to fulfill the sadistic pleasures of their superiors, who sacrifice legions for their own glory and promotion.
How do they get away with this? Why do the victims obey? Why do commoners march into certain mutilation or death rather than shoot those who sacrifice them? This question is one of the most important faced by our species; answering it explains, if not everything, than almost everything. Theoretical discussions of this issue abound; this narrative puts us in the place of one who survived and let's us comprehend his thoughts and emotions. Laid bare are the mechanisms of totalitarian control not only over the bodies, but the hearts, minds, and souls of the victims--which is almost all of us who are asked or allowed to serve.
Coincidentally, I read this just after finishing *Seductive Poison*, a survivor's account of life [and death] with Peoples Temple, culminating in the mass murder/suicide of over 900 devoted followers in Jonestown. Jim Jones is widely considered a pathological cult leader; yet Deborah Layton and hundreds of other sane and idealistic persons voluntarily adjusted themselves to his rule, and suffered humiliation, privation, and death in fulfilling his commands. The methods of social control, the myriads of ways in which followers accustom themselves in participating in great atrocities [including those inflicted on themselves], even as they extenuate, justify, and deny to the grave, are the same in murder/suicide cults public and private--in national armies as well as Jonestown in Guinea or the Brach Davidian compound at Waco. Understanding the armed forces of nations as officially-sanctioned murder/suicide cults is essential for us to recognize their true natures.

23 people found this helpful

Helpful

xavier stone

A powerful and authentic read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 7, 2022

Verified Purchase

Louis Barthas, a middle aged man drafted into the french infantry at the beginning of ww1, tells the grim reality of life in the trenches. He spent nearly the entire war there and offers readers a first hand account of the horrors of trench warfare. What makes it even more interesting is that Louis is a staunch socialist and a pacifist at his core. He never failed to perform his assigned duties, led by example, and hoped that humanity would one day find peace.

As for the text itself, it's written expertly. A very smooth, direct, and easy to read book.

His comrades told him that he must tell their story; he didn't spare any details.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

stephen

awesome writer

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

Naturally eloquent and poignant account of one man’s experience in war. So witty as well. Feel like I was there with him. Loved it.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

IFishOften@aol.com

A sane man in an insane world.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

Corporal Barthas was not an eighteen year old kid who was filled with visions of glory and adventure. He was a married man and a father. He had a trade that he enjoyed and was proud of. He was jerked out of his happy existence and thrown into the misery of a meat grinder war of attrition. He existed at the bottom of the war machine pyramid. The front line infantry “poilu” were considered totally expendable. By some miracle this man survived over four years of artillery shells, machine gun bullets, snipers, poison gas and the worst that nature could throw at a person living perpetually outdoors. I have read hundreds of books centered on war with only a few written from the perspective of the lowliest troops. His is the most literate and readable. I would love to go back in time 100 years and share a meal and glass of wine with this humble man of vision.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Just wonderful

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 17, 2022

Verified Purchase

Amazing story of what happened on the front lines of the Western Front of ww1. The story is amazing and Louis Barthas is so... Human, how he tells everything. It's a truly compelling read.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Johncougaruk

In my top 5 WW1 books

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

I've read quite a lot of WW1 first hand accounts and some fail to convey the true horrors and hardships (if that's what you want from a WW1 book). This cannot be said of this book, for me the first reading of the vividness and detail resulted in initially failing to comprehend what I had read because of the inhumanity and shock. I found myself re-reading to truly try to take in what the battles were really like. Whilst he mostly conveys in depth the actions involved in an attack, a defence or a counter attack, throughout the book the horrific death's of soldiers is sometimes contained in single sentences - that's not a criticism, that's capturing how eventually the life of a fellow soldier was ended and death seems to have become so regular and so familiar that it seems to have lost any feeling. A true reflection of the impact of war on this and many soldiers in WW1.

5 people found this helpful

Martin

Incredible!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

I've read alot of book on WW1, I'm abit of a nerd who just wants to absorbe more and more information on this topic. I can honestly say that this book and Robert Graves - Goodbye To All That, are the BEST accounts on the first world war.

Its a big book with so much information but just an absolute page turner. I was so ingrosed. It makes alot of other books on WW1 that I thought where brilliant seem just mediocre in comparison.

This book is an absolute must own. Just gripping from start to finish. I can't recommend this book highly enough

3 people found this helpful

SPAD

A dirge. Accurate but unremitting in it's tone.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 10, 2022

Verified Purchase

I have not finished this book, and may not. I have read nearly two hundred pages and it is a devoted description of discomfort, hunger and inequality between officers and men. It is quite revealing in the level of encounter with the Germans which is negligible in terms of actual conflict. There is a sense of his (and his fellow soldiers) being willing to accommodate German occupation of France for a quiet life and better grub. As a social document it follows many other French Army memoirs which concentrate on mud, food, and bad officers. As such it is worthy, but very dull, humourless and repetitive.

M. Pain

Unforgettable and revelatory.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

I am glad I found and read this book not having heatd of it before the account of the authors and his comrades experiences and sufferings is unforgettable.
Lucky to survive the war both by escaping death, privations and the squalor of the trenches along with the actions and stupidity of his own army in the lack of care and humanity meted out by many officers the account at times enrages the reader.
Possibly the best anti war book: written by a reluctant socialist participant. I would recommend it be read by everyone.

Charlemagne the lesser

Up there with the best Great War books

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 26, 2022

Verified Purchase

corporal Barthas gives the most complete account of the suffering of the ordinary French soldier on the Western Front and the inhuman attitude of so many of their so called Superiors. Whilst I had read about the Battles and those who planned and executed the slaughter on all sides, this book shows the sheer cynicism of the French military machine with a few honourable exceptions at the lower levels towards those they lead to their deaths.

Buying Options

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the Authors

Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914 – 1918 Kindle Edition

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the authors

Louis Barthas

Edward M. Strauss

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries