Quote by Joseph E. Persico

“Wilhelm was bombastic, overbearing, and contemptuous of what he perceived as softness in others. He described Czar Nicholas as “fit only to live in a country house and grow turnips.” quote by Joseph E. Persico — Download Open image

““Wilhelm was bombastic, overbearing, and contemptuous of what he perceived as softness in others. He described Czar Nicholas as “fit only to live in a country house and grow turnips.””

Joseph E. Persico

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More 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 battlefield glory. He had lost his sergeant’s stripes and been broken to private for urging a friend, in a censored letter, to stay out of the war. His pointless gesture might have been a last desperate…

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…

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“On December 18, he asked each side to set forth its terms for ending the war. The Allies demanded conditions certain to be unacceptable:…

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

Joseph E. Persico

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“The last deaths of the Great War on the western front occurred at midnight on the twelfth in Hamont, a Belgian town near the Dutch border. Retreating German troops, believing they were the last to leave the city, mined the Hamont railroad station. But one final train filled with German soldiers arrived from Antwerp. The mine went off with a…

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“German resistance continued to present a hodgepodge of fanaticism amid disorder. A British patrol entering a deserted village east of Valenciennes in the northern sector came across a wounded German lieutenant propped up against the wall of a house. He told them, in flawless English, that his men had abandoned the town two hours before and he hoped a British…

Joseph E. Persico

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

Joseph E. Persico

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“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

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“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 chipping away at it. Russia was mobilizing more swiftly than anticipated; thus he sent 15 percent of the army to defend East Prussia. Moltke did not want the French to retake Alsace-Lorraine; hence another 25 percent…

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“Compounding the horror, German officials committed an act of staggering insensitivity: they struck a commemorative medal with a depiction of the sinking ship on…

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“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