Peter J. Conradi

Meeting the Enemy, by Richard Van Emden; 1914, by Allan Mallinson – review

Christmas Day truce of 1914. Credit: Frederic Villiers/ The Illustrated London News/The Bridgeman Art Library 
issue 05 October 2013
  • Comments

  • Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War

    Richard van Emden

    Bloomsbury, pp. 384

  • 1914: Fight the Good Fight

    Allan Mallinson

    Bantam, pp. 503

The Great War was an obscene and futile conflict laying waste a generation and toppling emperors. Yet here are two books that situate the horrors of trench warfare within a much larger perspective. One argues that the war had a forgotten ‘human face’. The other that it might all have had a very different outcome.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY 3 MONTHS FOR $5
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Start your 3-month trial today for just $5 and subscribe to more than one view

Read next

Trending

Julie Bindel

Do Green voters know what they’ve done?

The Green party has done well at the local elections, making dozens of gains across England. But do those who voted Green, perhaps for the first time, realise what they have done? If not, they will spend the next four years regretting their vote. Perhaps the party’s name led them to naively conclude that the

More on book review

Also by Peter J. Conradi

Latest

Comments

Join the debate for just £1 a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.

Already a subscriber? Log in