The Price of Glory

Verdun 1916; Revised Edition

The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 is the second book of Alistair Horne's trilogy, which includes The Fall of Paris and To Lose a Battle and tells the story of the great crises of the rivalry between France and Germany. The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles. Its aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death and a battleground whose once fertile terrain is even now a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, continuously in print for over fifty years, is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the battle and the men who fought there. It shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War to the minds of those who waged it, the traditions that bound them and the world that gave them the opportunity. 'Verdun was the bloodiest battle in history ... The Price of Glory is the essential book on the subject'
  Sunday Times 'It has almost every merit ... Horne sorts out complicating issues with the greatest clarity. He has a splendid gift for depicting individuals'
  A.J.P. Taylor, Observer 'A masterpiece'
  The New York Times 'Compellingly told ... Alastair Horne uses contemporary accounts from both sides to build up a picture of heroism, mistakes, even farce'
  Sunday Telegraph 'Brilliantly written ... very readable; almost like a historical novel - except that it is true'
  Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery One of Britain's greatest historians, Sir Alistair Horne, CBE, is the author of a trilogy on the rivalry between France and Germany, The Price of Glory, The Fall of Paris and To Lose a Battle, as well as a two-volume life of Harold Macmillan.
© Jerry Bauer
Alistair Horne is the author of eighteen previous books, including A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962, The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916, How Far from Austerlitz?: Napoleon 1805–1815 and the official biography of British prime minister Harold Macmillan. He is a fellow at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, and lives in Oxfordshire. He was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur in 1993 and received a knighthood in 2003 for his work on French history. View titles by Alistair Horne
The Price Of GloryPreface

1. La Débâcle
2. Joffre of the Marne
3. Falkenhayn
4. Operation Gericht
5. The Waiting Machine
6. The First Day
7. The Fall of Colonel Driant
8. Breakthrough
9. Fort Douaumont
10. De Castelnau Decides
11. Pétain
12. The Take-over
13. Reappraisals
14. The Mort Homme
15. Widening Horizons
16. In Another Country
17. The Air Battle
18. The Crown Prince
19. the Triumvirate
20. 'May Cup'
21. Fort Vaux
22. Danger Signals
23. The Secret Enemies
24. The Crisis
25. Falkenhayn Dismissed
26. The Counterstrokes
27. The New Leader
28. Aftermath

Epilogue
Bibliography of Principal Sources
Reference Notes
Index

About

The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 is the second book of Alistair Horne's trilogy, which includes The Fall of Paris and To Lose a Battle and tells the story of the great crises of the rivalry between France and Germany. The battle of Verdun lasted ten months. It was a battle in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of fifteen miles. Its aim was less to defeat the enemy than bleed him to death and a battleground whose once fertile terrain is even now a haunted wilderness. Alistair Horne's classic work, continuously in print for over fifty years, is a profoundly moving, sympathetic study of the battle and the men who fought there. It shows that Verdun is a key to understanding the First World War to the minds of those who waged it, the traditions that bound them and the world that gave them the opportunity. 'Verdun was the bloodiest battle in history ... The Price of Glory is the essential book on the subject'
  Sunday Times 'It has almost every merit ... Horne sorts out complicating issues with the greatest clarity. He has a splendid gift for depicting individuals'
  A.J.P. Taylor, Observer 'A masterpiece'
  The New York Times 'Compellingly told ... Alastair Horne uses contemporary accounts from both sides to build up a picture of heroism, mistakes, even farce'
  Sunday Telegraph 'Brilliantly written ... very readable; almost like a historical novel - except that it is true'
  Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery One of Britain's greatest historians, Sir Alistair Horne, CBE, is the author of a trilogy on the rivalry between France and Germany, The Price of Glory, The Fall of Paris and To Lose a Battle, as well as a two-volume life of Harold Macmillan.

Author

© Jerry Bauer
Alistair Horne is the author of eighteen previous books, including A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962, The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916, How Far from Austerlitz?: Napoleon 1805–1815 and the official biography of British prime minister Harold Macmillan. He is a fellow at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, and lives in Oxfordshire. He was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur in 1993 and received a knighthood in 2003 for his work on French history. View titles by Alistair Horne

Table of Contents

The Price Of GloryPreface

1. La Débâcle
2. Joffre of the Marne
3. Falkenhayn
4. Operation Gericht
5. The Waiting Machine
6. The First Day
7. The Fall of Colonel Driant
8. Breakthrough
9. Fort Douaumont
10. De Castelnau Decides
11. Pétain
12. The Take-over
13. Reappraisals
14. The Mort Homme
15. Widening Horizons
16. In Another Country
17. The Air Battle
18. The Crown Prince
19. the Triumvirate
20. 'May Cup'
21. Fort Vaux
22. Danger Signals
23. The Secret Enemies
24. The Crisis
25. Falkenhayn Dismissed
26. The Counterstrokes
27. The New Leader
28. Aftermath

Epilogue
Bibliography of Principal Sources
Reference Notes
Index