December 2, 2013
On February 21, 1916, a million shells descended on the trenches surrounding the French city of Verdun; German troops advanced a few miles until stopped by rain, mud, and resistance. Both nations poured in reinforcements, and months of attacks and counterattacks produced massive casualties but only modest German advances. By December, French forces recovered most of the lost ground. Although France celebrates the Battle of Verdun as a great victory, historians agree it had no political impact and decided little, if anything, in the wider war. Verdun remains the epitome of senseless industrial slaughter, writes Jankowski, professor of history at Brandeis University (Shades of Indignation: Political Scandals in France), in an engrossing history that focuses less on the fighting than its political and cultural background. Most French and German people at the time believed that national survival was at stake, and while some of the suffering soldiers agreed, many dissented as well. Drawing even more heavily on archives, letters, and journals than Alistair Horne in his classic 1962 The Price of Glory, Jankowski has written a superb, definitive popular account of Verdun through the eyes of soldiers, military leaders, and citizens of the two nations.