“Hitler would later claim that his evacuation from the front had ended the happiest chapter of his life. In the trenches he had escaped from an aimless existence.” — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“It became impossible for me to sit still one minute more,” Hitler recalled. “Again everything went black before my eyes; I tottered and groped my way back to the dormitory, threw myself on my bunk, and dug my burning head… — 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
“Barely across the Ourcq, Donovan’s battalion began taking fire from three sides. One bullet grazed Wild Bill’s thigh; another tore off the heel of… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“A great many of the Army officers were very fine in the way that they took care of their men. But there were certain… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“MacArthur strode before his men, armed only with a riding crop, a cigarette holder clamped jauntily between his teeth, without the slightest suggestion in… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
