Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2014
544 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
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 historian David Reynolds seeks to broaden our vision by assessing the impact of the Great War across the twentieth century. He shows how events in that turbulent century - particularly World War II, the Cold War, and the collapse of Communism - reshaped attitudes to 1914–18.
By exploring big themes such as democracy and empire, nationalism and capitalism, as well as art and poetry, The Long Shadow is stunningly broad in its historical perspective. Reynolds throws light on the vast expanse of the last century and explains why 1914–18 is a conflict that America is still struggling to comprehend. Forging connections between people, places, and ideas, The Long Shadow ventures across the traditional subcultures of historical scholarship to offer a rich and layered examination not only of politics, diplomacy, and security but also of economics, art, and literature. The result is a magisterial reinterpretation of the place of the Great War in modern history.
16 pages of color illustrations
"Starred Review. Reynolds's analysis provocatively contextualizes the interwar British experience." - Publishers Weekly
"A lifetime of scholarship informs this highly readable analysis of what the author calls 'the forgotten conflict.'" - Kirkus
"Brilliant…the most challenging and intelligent book on the Great War and our perceptions of it that any of us will read this, or any other year." - The Times (UK)
"The Long Shadow is a fluent corrective to our preoccupation with our own individual and family war stories, and offers a truly global perspective on the conflict's long shadow." - The Telegraph (UK)
"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." - The Times Higher Education Supplement (UK)
"Here at last among the plethora of predictable books on the anniversary of the great war is an intelligent and critical assessment… presented with a masterly array of sources across a busy century, at once thought-provoking and thoroughly informed." - The Guardian (UK)
"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." - The Sunday Times (UK)
"Written by an outstanding historian at the height of his powers, The Long Shadow is a brilliant study in 'legacies and refractions.'" - The Independent (UK)
"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 with dry wit." - Financial Times (UK)
"Eloquent… 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." - The Daily Mail (UK)
This information about The Long Shadow was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
David Reynolds is a professor of international history at Cambridge University. He is the author of books including In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War, which won the Wolfson Prize.
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