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Tommy's War

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Tommy's War

The Western Front in Soldiers' Words and Photographs
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Hardback
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Description

Conventional histories of the Great War have tended to focus on the terrible attritional battles of Ypres, of Arras and of the Somme. What they do not tell us is what life was like for the ordinary soldier, what mattered to him, and how he survived, both physically and mentally. Now for the first time, one of Britain's leading military historians, Richard van Emden tells the story of the Great War exclusively through the words and images of soldiers on the ground. In Tommy's War, he gathers some of the very best first-hand material written about the War, some of it published at the time and forgotten, some of it previously unpublished, but all of it wonderfully descriptive and immediate, and often wickedly funny. Tommy humour, frequently very dark, played a vital part in men's mental survival, particularly in times of great stress. Until now its critical role in victory has been overlooked. Richard van Emden restores the balance, giving weight to the soldiers' natural inclination to laugh during their darkest moments. Illustrating these eyewitness accounts with soldiers' own photographs taken on privately owned cameras, often tiny Vest Pocket Kodaks - the smart phones of their day - van Emden has created an entirely new and fresh history of the Great War, giving us a glimpse of 'Tommy Atkins' as he has never been seen before.

Author Biography

Richard van Emden has interviewed more than 270 veterans of the Great War and has written fifteen books on the subject including The Trench and The Last Fighting Tommy, both of which were top ten bestsellers. He has also worked on more than a dozen television programmes on the First World War, including Prisoners of the Kaiser, Veterans, Britain's Last Tommies, the award-winning Roses of No Man's Land, Britain's Boy Soldiers, A Poem for Harry, War Horse: The Real Story and most recently, Teenage Tommies with Fergal Keane. He lives in London.
Release date Australia
June 5th, 2014
Audience
  • General (US: Trade)
Country of Publication
United Kingdom
Imprint
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Pages
384
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Dimensions
178x234x35
ISBN-13
9781408844366
Product ID
22085139

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