Voices from the Front: An Oral History of the Great War

Description

Every man who served in the Great War is now deceased, but they have left behind them an enormous collection of oral history, which captures the authentic voices of the front line soldiers. In Voices from the Front, oral historian Peter Hart brings together accounts from across the conflict, from soldiers, sailors and airmen, from officers and privates alike. In the course of his research, he talked to men who saw their friends die in front of them, who were seriously wounded themselves, men who refused to fight on principle and those whose indomitable spirit carried them through thick and thin. Sometimes they were there at crucial turning points in the war - going over the top in the slaughter of the Somme in 1916 or punching through the German lines to victory in 1918 - and sometimes they sweated, toiled and suffered on a forgotten front, thousands of miles from home. In the vein of The Beauty and the Sorrow, this is the First World War seen through the eyes of the men who experienced it for themselves.

Peter Hart is the oral historian at the Imperial War Museum and has written several titles on the First World War. His latest books for Profile are Gallipoli, The Great War and Voices from the Front.

Praise for Gallipoli: 'All good history books should be an assault on myth, and in Gallipoli Peter Hart mounts a supremely effective attack * Mail on Sunday * A marvellous book ... vivid and compelling * The Economist * Praise for The Great War 'I would highly recommend this book, not only for the honest appraisal of all the main characters and countries involved, but because it gives a voice to those who paid the ultimate price. * Morning Star *