LitPick Review
The War To End All Wars: World War 1 by Russell Freedman deals with the entire story of World War 1. This book contains the reasons that prompted the war, and the events that ended the war, as well as interesting stories that happened during the war. Readers will find out why World War 1 was the first war where individual countries were capable of inflicting millions of casualties upon each other. You will also learn some things about how World War 1 flowed into World War II. There are powerful pictures here, taken during the war, some of actual battles.
Opinion:
This book was interesting and fun to read, at times. Prepare yourself: there are a lot of facts. Now, some people could argue that this made the book easier to read and understand, but I felt that so many dates and numbers made the book feel plain and a bit boring. The best parts were the quirky little stories, like the fact that during one Christmas, German and English soldiers came out of their opposing trenches and exchanged gifts. These were the most interesting parts, but other than that, the book was filled with information about how many people fought, and how many people died. One other major flaw of the book was that the author kept using foreign names of towns and roads in various countries, and pictures of soldiers marching and fighting, but I had no idea where any of this fighting and marching was happening! A detailed map of France somewhere in the book would have been VERY helpful. I did learn a lot about World War 1 though, so it is a great book in that way. I would only recommend this book to mature readers, because it has some mature themes and graphic images.
