The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century - Couverture rigide

Reynolds, David

4,03

635 �valuations de Goodreads

9780857206350: The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0857206354 ISBN 13 : 9780857206350

Editeur : Simon & Schuster, 2013

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In Britain we have lost touch with the Great War. Our overriding sense now is of a meaningless, futile bloodbath in the mud of Flanders -- of young men whose lives were cut off in their prime for no evident purpose. But by reducing the conflict to personal tragedies, however moving, we have lost the big picture: the history has been distilled into poetry. In The Long Shadow, critically acclaimed author David Reynolds seeks to redress the balance by exploring the true impact of 1914-18 on the 20th century. Some of the Great War's legacies were negative and pernicious but others proved transformative in a positive sense. Exploring big themes such as democracy and empire, nationalism and capitalism and re-examining the differing impacts of the War on Britain, Ireland and the United States, The Long Shadow throws light on the whole of the last century and demonstrates that 1914-18 is a conflict that Britain, more than any other nation, is still struggling to comprehend. Stunningly broad in its historical perspective, The Long Shadow is a magisterial and seismic re-presentation of the Great War.

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Revue de presse :

'A century on, there is no end to the fighting and the writing ... Who better as remembrancer than David Reynolds, with his customary lucidity, his long view, his comparative perspective, his contemporary sensitivity, his scholarly sanity and his crisp humanity? ... This is the work of a master historian' Alex Danchev, THES

'The First World War, David Reynolds notes, has turned sepia in the popular imagination and is 'memorialised' as a thing of mud, trenches and poets. The Long Shadow looks instead at the way the conflict influenced the main issues of the century that followed, from politics and economics to national borders and intellectual parameters' Michael Prodger, New Statesman

'Few are better equipped to [unscramble myths] do so than Cambridge professor David Reynolds, already the author of several outstanding works. His latest book explores the political, cultural and social legacy of the First World War, and offers correctives to many popular delusions. Perspective is critical to a comprehension of history, and Reynolds has no peer in helping us to achieve this' Max Hastings, Sunday Times

'This is a challenging thesis, presented with a masterly array of sources across a busy century, at once thought-provoking and thoroughly informed; the prose is fluent and zestful, and the arguments are constructed with a fine level of critical observation' Richard Overy, Guardian

'Books on the First World War are already filling bookshops ready for the 2014 centenary. Few are likely to be as challenging - or as readable as The Long Shadow. This is magisterial work by one of Britain s foremost historians' Diane Lees, The Times

'Written by an outstanding historian at the height of his powers, this book is a brilliant study in legacies and refractions ... There is burgeoning interest in the debate about the place of the Great War in modern history, to which Reynolds has made a definitive contribution' Piers Brendon, Independent

'As an introduction to the controversies and complexities of a period of history that will be on all our minds next year, it is unlikely to be bettered' Tom Holland, History Today

'Reynolds, a Cambridge don who has written extensively on political and international history, addresses the parliamentary, cultural, military and social legacy of the war, and corrects many of the myths veiling it...If you read no other book on the conflict, it should be this one' Keith Simpson MP, Total Politics Magazine

'This book s deepest message is about the inescapability of history, whether we choose to live in its shadow or to turn our backs on the warnings it offers to the present' 4 star review, Christopher Clark, Mail on Sunday

'This is a masterly study in every sense: by an historian at the top of his game, deploying wide-ranging research in important arguments, sustained alike with rich detail and dry wit' Peter Clarke, Financial Times

'. . . deploying the Great War as his lens, Reynolds has given us one of the most illuminating studies in the history of ideas to appear for many years. Beautifully written, with a masterly command of the diverse subject matter it addresses, The Long Shadow is an immensely rich book . . . if our leaders really want to learn from history, they could start by reading this book' John Gray, Literary Review

'This is broad, big-theme history at its very best, brilliantly written by a giant of the discipline' Times Higher Education

'This hugely impressive work examines the impact of the war on the following century, focusing largely on the British perspective... he exposes the shallowness of this view in a series of perceptive and intellectually exciting essays... it is a book that deserves to be read, and that deserves to endure' --BBC History

Biographie de l'auteur :

David Reynolds won the Wolfson Prize in 2004 for his superb book on Churchill, and is the author of Summits (2007) and most recently America: Empire of Liberty (2009). He has made critically acclaimed films and series for both BBC4 and BBC2 including films on Churchill and Attlee.

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