The Long Shadow

By David Reynolds,

Book cover of The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century

Book description

One of the most violent conflicts in the history of civilization, World War I has been strangely forgotten in American culture. It has become a ghostly war fought in a haze of memory, often seen merely as a distant preamble to World War II. In The Long Shadow critically acclaimed…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Long Shadow as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

David Reynolds is simply one of the smartest and most original historians operating today. Do we imagine that no one thought much about the poems of Wilfred Owen until the 1960s? Do we think about how important the fiftieth anniversary of the Somme was for the politics of Ireland? This book is packed full of perceptive and original insights about the Great War’s very long legacy.

From Benjamin's list on the legacy of the First World War.

The Great War haunts us still, more than 100 years later. Reynolds’ brilliant book explores why that is the case, unspooling the many legacies of the war, from its impact on geopolitics and ideological systems to the long shadow of war shading culture and commemoration. A sweeping history by a master historian that shows why the Great War still matters, and will always matter.

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