Verdun

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Alongside Waterloo and Gettysburg, the Battle of Verdun during the First World War stands as one of history’s greatest clashes. Perfect for military history buffs, this compelling account of one of World War I’s most important battles explains why it is also the most complex and misunderstood.

Although British historians have always seen Verdun as a one-year battle designed by the German chief of staff to bleed France white, historian John Mosier’s careful analysis of the German plans reveals a much more abstract and theoretical approach. From the very beginning of the war until the armistice in 1918, no fewer than eight distinct battles were waged there. These conflicts are largely unknown, even in France, owing to the obsessive secrecy of the French high command.

Our understanding of Verdun has long been mired in myths, false assumptions, propaganda, and distortions. Now, using numerous accounts of military analysts, serving officers, and eyewitnesses, including French sources that have never been translated, Mosier offers a compelling reassessment of the Great War’s most important battle.Praise for John Mosier’s military histories

“Mr. Mosier [is] one of the more entertainingly contrarian military historians writing today.”—The Washington Times

“The author knows his military history, strategy, and tactics…packed with evidence, much of it ingeniously obtained and argued.” —The Washington Post on The Myth of the Great War

“This provocative book tosses military-history hand grenades on almost every page, challenging just about every generally held notion about World War II.”—Forbes on The Blitzkrieg Myth

“A dramatic departure from the conventional wisdom…a dramatic chronicle of the most brutal theater in the most brutal war in one of history’s most brutal centuries…This is a clear-eyed, compelling description of a battle that has been described many times, but seldom with such an ironic eye.”—The Boston Globe on Hitler vs. Stalin

“There is much in the work I really admire, not least its brilliant recasting of the traditional military narrative.”—Niall Ferguson on The Myth of the Great WarJohn Mosier, who earned his Ph.D. at Tulane University, is a professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, where he teaches courses in film, modern European literature, and the 18th-century novel. His books on the World Wars, including Verdun, The Myth of the Great War, and Hitler vs. Stalin, have given him a reputation as a leading revisionist historian.US

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