“The retaking of Mons, site of the first retreat, might be seen as poetic closure. It could also symbolize futility. The British Army was back where it had started on the western front—some 700,000 lives later.” — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Sergeant Powell would never understand what compelled Henry Gunther to rise up and charge the enemy. Gunther had never been seduced by dreams of… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Henry Cabot Lodge. Wilson rejected even reasonable compromises, and Lodge refused to budge. Hence, the United States failed to enter… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“On December 18, he asked each side to set forth its terms for ending the war. The Allies demanded conditions certain to be unacceptable:… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“The last deaths of the Great War on the western front occurred at midnight on the twelfth in Hamont, a Belgian town near the… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“German resistance continued to present a hodgepodge of fanaticism amid disorder. A British patrol entering a deserted village east of Valenciennes in the northern… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“The imperative of war is to kill, and thus all wars are exercises in sanctioned murder.” — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“The initial conclusion of the subcommittee was that “needless slaughter” took place on November 11, 1918. However, this finding was beaten back by vocal… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Moltke began to tamper with Schlieffen’s plan. Instead of investing 90 percent of the German Army in the French campaign, as required, he began… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Compounding the horror, German officials committed an act of staggering insensitivity: they struck a commemorative medal with a depiction of the sinking ship on… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“constant companions throughout the project: Stanley Weintraub’s A Stillness Heard Round the World, A. J. P. Taylor’s The First World War, John Keegan’s The… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Mustard gas was stubborn, clinging to the ground as long as three days. Heavier than air, it settled into craters and trenches where men… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
