“Revel in the fulsome flattery, dear fool! It does not stop war from being a filthy trick.” — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Turkey, fearing attack by Russia, took Germany’s side and declared war against the czar by bombarding the port of Odessa.” — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Pétain’s mission was to quell the rebellion and continue prosecution of the war.” — 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 western front on armistice morning, the commanders of seven judged the war essentially over upon receiving word of the signing and… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“In France, the war created 600,000 widows and left nearly one million children fatherless. In England three men were killed in World… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Waving his arm over the carnage, the German remarked that the American attack that morning had been a “foolish affair.” He himself… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“the human nature whose strong quality it brings out and reveals. To attribute any nobility to war itself is as much a… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“The ground over which the bulk of the battles raged was only about eighty-five miles wide, a relatively modest battleground but a… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Passchendaele ended in breathtaking losses. More than 310,000 British, 85,000 Frenchmen, and 260,000 Germans, a total of 655,000, had fallen in a… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“The railroad car stood in the midst of French villages that the war had effaced from the earth. The Germans were confronting… — 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… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“The last day of the war provided chilling closure. The ending, in its ferocity, bloodiness, and uselessness, contained the entire war in… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“One last unexploded mine remains, its exact location unknown and its hidden potency serving as something of a symbol of the Great… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“This knowledge, however, served the purposes of peace rather than war. The German general staff grasped that the tide of Americans, now… — Joseph E. Persico Copy Share Image
“Conciliation now would only lead to future war. A negotiated peace rather than a peace dictated by the Allies “would jeopardize the… — 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
