The Greatest Day in History: How, on the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month, the First World War Finally Came to an End
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The dramatic story of the events that lead up to Armistice Day—November 11, 1918—and the end of the bloodiest conflict of the twentieth century. Publishers Weekly Historian and novelist Best, former fiction critic for the Financial Times, offers a sophisticated presentation of the effects of the Great War's final week on its military and civilian participants. Day by day, he presents firsthand accounts from a spectrum of familiar and unfamiliar sources. On November 5, 1918, Scots Guards Pvt. Stephen Graham took part in an attack with an elite British division, while American artillery Capt. Harry Truman picked flowers to send his fiancée and contemplated running for Congress when-and if-he got home. On November 8, Evelyn Blücher, an Englishwoman married to a German prince, feared an outbreak of riots or revolution in Germany. And on November 11, Armistice Day, a crowd of Australians celebrated by storming Boulogne's red light district to the battle cry of "let's fuck 'em free!" What might have been merely a kaleidoscopic series of vignettes is given shape and focus by Best's skill at paraphrasing the narratives and synergizing the experiences of those who lived through "the greatest day in history," knowing they had survived the deadliest war up to then-and suddenly asking, "What happens now?" 16 pages of b&w photos. (Nov.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
List of IllustrationsCh. 1 Monday, 4 November 1918 1Ch. 2 Tuesday, 5 November 1918 23Ch. 3 Wednesday, 6 November 1918 40Ch. 4 Thursday, 7 November 1918 57Ch. 5 Friday, 8 November 1918 80Ch. 6 Saturday, 9 November 1918 105Ch. 7 Sunday, 10 November 1918 133Ch. 8 Monday, 11 November 1918, the early hours 162Ch. 9 Monday, 11 November 1918, 11 a.m 191Ch. 10 Monday, 11 November 1918, afternoon 225Ch. 11 Monday, 11 November 1918, evening 256Bibliography 289Index 295
