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Winner of the 2014 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for the Best Work of History
"Brilliant…the most challenging and intelligent book on the Great War and our perceptions of it that any of us will read." —John Charley, The Times [London]
"[World War I has] been analyzed before, but never with such depth of perception or range of understanding. Reynolds is able to speak with authority on economics and philosophy; literature and art; politics, diplomacy and memory. He is a historian of immense skill, utterly confident of his wisdom and deservedly so."
"Eloquent… This book’s deepest message is about the inescapability of history, whether we choose to live in its shadow or to turn our backs on the warnings it offers to the present."
"Fascinating."
"Offers correctives to many popular delusions. Perspective is critical to a comprehension of history, and Reynolds has no peer in helping us to achieve this."
"Here at last among the plethora of predictable books on the anniversary of the great war is an intelligent and critical assessment… presented with a masterly array of sources across a busy century, at once thought-provoking and thoroughly informed."
"Transcends conventional histories about World War I …The kind of book that challenges readers to think."
"[A] masterly look at what the war meant and how its meaning changed by decade."
"A fluent corrective to our preoccupation with our own individual and family war stories . . . offers a truly global perspective on the conflict’s long shadow."
"Who better as remembrancer than David Reynolds, with his customary lucidity, his long view, his comparative perspective, his contemporary sensitivity, his scholarly sanity and his crisp humanity? …This is the work of a master historian."
"Brilliant…. As an introduction to the controversies and complexities of a period of history that will be on all our demands next year, it is unlikely to be bettered."
"Written by an outstanding historian at the height of his powers, The Long Shadow is a brilliant study in ‘legacies and refractions.’"
"A masterly study in every sense: by an historian at the top of his game, deploying wide-ranging research in important arguments, sustained alike with rich detail and with dry wit."
"Compelling… Reynolds ably and dramatically depicts the many unforeseen and unimagined consequences of war—not just for the dead and wounded, but also for the living and the yet to be born."
"One of the most illuminating studies in the history of ideas to appear for many years. Beautifully written, with a masterly command of the diverse subject matter it addresses, The Long Shadow is an immensely rich book."
"An extraordinary work."
"A clear-eyed appraisal of the First World War’s consequences."
David Reynolds is a professor of international history at Cambridge University. He is the author of books including The Long Shadow and In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War, which won the Wolfson Prize.