Faces of World War One: The Tragedy of the Great War in Words and Pictures |
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Max Arthur
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Pages: 288 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 1844035611
Pub: Cassell Illustrated
Pub date: 2007-10-11
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6741
Reader Reviews:
Essential Addition to the WW1 Library (0/0 people found this helpful)
This is first and foremost a picture book. As you might expect, there are many uncomfortable images, but it is a far more balanced book than that. There are many depictions of strong comradeship and even happiness amongst the desperate conditions and casualties of the trenches. Without much in the way of text, it doesn't fully, even with pictures, convey the 'grit' of the WW1 experience that I think many of today's, removed generation would like to understand. But as a picture book, it has no rival, and is beautifully printed.
Unforgettable faces (40/41 people found this helpful)
There have been other books of photos of World War 1, and one might expect to see the same old images - but this is a collection of many unfamiliar, previously unseen photos - of subjects ranging from the Western Front, Gallipoli, the home front, and behind the lines - and both before, during and after the war.
The large format lends itself to the often panoramic images - and also allows you to see in detail extraordinary and haunting portraits - the 'faces' after which the book is named. It's a collection to please the expert and the interested browser alike - a WWI buff will appreciate the precisely captioned battle scenes - but any reader will feel the impact of the personal quotations which accompany many images - they add an extraordinary dimension to one's understanding of life and conditions in the trenches. It's an immensely moving photo-record, but my heart was particularly wrenched by the three Australian brothers who all died in one two-day attack, the home images of the average, working-class man who went to fight for king and country... not the Eton toffs, but the desperately poor. The images depict a world of contrasts, both in Britain and in Germany - but when it came down to it, all the men at the front were in the same boat, and returned after the conflict to their bleak lives with their terrible disfigurements, mental scars and the memory of lost comrades.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Military History -> World War I
Books -> Subjects -> History -> Military History -> Encyclopaedias & Pictorials
Books -> Subjects -> History -> North America
Books -> Subjects -> History -> World History -> World War I 1914-1918
Books -> Subjects -> History -> General
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Hardcover