An enlightening look at the American experience in The Great War

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	• To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War Jeff Shaara Ballantine Books, 2005 - 672 pages average customer review:based on 80 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A no-nonsense, very human, account of the war

A superbly written and researched historical novel about World War I, "To the Last Man" was the winner of the 2005 American Library Association's "Boyd" Award. Shaara, who has also written novels about the American Civil War and the Mexican War, follows the war from the perspective of Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, aviators, American Raoul Lufbery and German Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron), and Marine Private Roscoe Temple. This is a no-nonsense account of the war.

This book contains many gems, one of them being a close-up glimpse of Patton before he became the Patton we saw in World War II. Another is the contrast between the view of the war from the wide perspective of the pilots in the very young air forces on both sides and the narrow, up-close perspective of the men in the trenches.

If high school and college students used this book as one of their textbooks, they'd come to a much quicker understanding of the war. I found the book so much more approachable than my school's supplementary text, "All Quiet on the Western Front." I have all of Shaara's books on my shelf and look forward to each new arrival.

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To the Last Man

This book is excellent. I ordered another copy for my grandson. I would highly recommend the book to all history lovers.

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An enlightening look at the American experience in The Great War

The First World War was aptly named "The Great War" in the belief that it had been so terrible that mankind would never repeat the experience. Alas for complacency! In literature the Second World War has to a large degree overshadowed WWI as a topic, and for that reason this novel by Jeff Shaara is a particularly welcome piece.

This novel is largely about the American contribution to the Allied cause, although it does deal quite a bit with Foch, Petain, and other Allied figures. There is also an interesting sub-story about Baron von Richthofen and his "Flying Circus." The battle narratives (both aerial and the infantry battles) are graphic and pretty interesting for the most part.

My favorite parts of the book are the portions that dealt with the Lafayette Escadrille (the American pilots who flew for France even before the American intervention), the sections dealing with von Richthofen, and above all the chapters about General Pershing. The latter was extremely insightful, and for the first time I had an appreciation of the daunting task faced by General Pershing and the American nation in creating and equipping, in a short time, a large modern land army out of essentially a frontier guard force. After reading this book I now see that General Pershing was indeed a giant of his time, and it was for good reason that America made him the first five-star general ("general of the armies") since General Washington.

The novel also enlightens the reader concerning the unique contribution that the American Army made to the Allied cause. The English and French soldiers had suffered horribly for several years and were exhausted, as were the Germans. Only the Americans, who had not endured such suffering, had the vigor to credibly threaten the Germans with repeated offensives that might ultimately have resulted in an Allied invasion of Germany had the war persisted. Further, by rejecting conventional trench warfare, Pershing's forces kept the Germans off-balance by pursuing a more mobile approach to battle.

Another perspective by Shaara--the American casualties in WW1 were similar in number to those we later suffered in the Vietnam War--but occurred over a much shorter time period. This war was a tragedy for many American families, although unlike the British and French, America did not lose essentially an entire generation of fine young men.

I was quite impressed with this one, and it is highly recommended.

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One of Shaara's best

Excellent detail, good choice of characters--highlights the importance of WWI to a generation for whom it was overshadowed by WWII. I've read all of Shaara's books and this one ranks as one of the best.

HISTORY COMES ALIVE

Jeff Shaara takes us back to the war to end all wars and brings the greats such as John Pershing and Marshall Petain to life. Air warfare was in its infancy and an unknown quantity. We read about the exploits of the Red Baron and Eddie Rickenbacker. The story is told from several points of view and the common thread is the horror of a world conflict. Definitely a must read for history buffs!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Jeff Shaara has enthralled readers with his New York Times bestselling novels set during the Civil War and the American Revolution. Now the acclaimed author turns to World War I, bringing to life the sweeping, emotional story of the war that devastated a generation and established America as a world power.

Spring 1916: the horror of a stalemate on Europe?s western front. France and Great Britain are on one side of the barbed wire, a fierce German army is on the other. Shaara opens the window onto the otherworldly tableau of trench warfare as seen through the eyes of a typical British soldier who experiences the bizarre and the horrible?a ?Tommy? whose innocent youth is cast into the hell of a terrifying war.

In the skies, meanwhile, technology has provided a devastating new tool, the aeroplane, and with it a different kind of hero emerges?the flying ace. Soaring high above the chaos on the ground, these solitary knights duel in the splendor and terror of the skies, their courage and steel tested with every flight.

As the conflict stretches into its third year, a neutral America is goaded into war, its reluctant president, Woodrow Wilson, finally accepting the repeated challenges to his stance of nonalignment. Yet the Americans are woefully unprepared and ill equipped to enter a war that has become worldwide in scope. The responsibility is placed on the shoulders of General John ?Blackjack? Pershing, and by mid-1917 the first wave of the American Expeditionary Force arrives in Europe. Encouraged by the bold spirit and strength of the untested Americans, the world waits to see if the tide of war can finally be turned.

From Blackjack Pershing to the Marine in the trenches, from the Red Baron to the American pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, To the Last Man is written with the moving vividness and accuracy that characterizes all of Shaara?s work. This spellbinding new novel carries readers?the way only Shaara can?to the heart of one of the greatest conflicts in human history, and puts them face-to-face with the characters who made a lasting impact on the world.

From the Hardcover edition.

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