Quote by Joseph E. Persico

“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

“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

“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

“The first-day casualties on the Somme totaled 57,470.”

— Joseph E. Persico

“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

“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

“The imperative of war is to kill, and thus all wars are exercises in sanctioned murder.”

— Joseph E. Persico

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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