Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2011
512 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
A groundbreaking book that offers a radical reassessment of the aftermath of World War II.
As newly formed relief organizations began to grapple with the recovery effort in Europe in 1945, they were confronted by an entire starving and uprooted continent. And while they were only beginning to grasp the atrocities that would come to be known as the Holocaust, more than twenty million people who had been expelled from their homes and homelands - "Displaced Persons," as they were called - constituted an immediate refugee crisis, the largest in Europe’s history.
This commonly ignored aspect of the war is brought to extraordinary life by acclaimed historian Ben Shephard through a trove of personal accounts and major new sources - including memoirs, essays, and oral histories - discovered during the course of his exhaustive research. Weaving together the observations and experiences of those who organized the postwar relief efforts and those who waited for their futures to be decided long after armistice was declared, The Long Road Home tells the epic story of how millions redefined the notion of home amid painstaking recovery.
"Starred Review. His masterful account mixes history, colorful personalities, and moving individual stories." - Publishers Weekly
"Shephard has provided a depressing but valuable examination of a largely neglected aspect of WWII." - Booklist
"In this excellent history, Shephard unforgettably conveys the post-war refugee crisis and its aftermath. Even today, thousands of DPs remain unaccounted for or, in the Red Cross parlance, 'dispersed'. The Long Road Home speaks for them by proxy and with proper sympathy." - The Telegraph (UK)
"This is a complex story and Shephard does not always recount it with crystal clarity. But his research is meticulous. He writes well with a keen eye for detail. His judgements are trenchant and he dishes out praise and blame with an even hand, commending Britain for feeding Germany by rationing bread at home and condemning the 'sheer hoggery' of the US military for starving Europe of grain." - The Independent (UK)
"A good story or a bad one for mankind? In the end, more good than bad – but full of awful warnings. And, from Shephard, a riveting and often entirely fresh story, shrewdly assembled, very well told." - The Guardian
This information about The Long Road Home was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ben Shephard was born in 1948, studied history at Oxford University, and is the author of the critically acclaimed A War of Nerves and After Daybreak. He was producer of the U.K. television series The World at War and The Nuclear Age, and has made numerous historical and scientific documentaries for the BBC and Channel Four. He lives in Bristol, England.
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