Silent Night: The Remarkable Christmas Truce Of 1914 - Couverture souple

'Like the best and most honorable historians, he allows the story to tell itself, using newspaper articles, unit histories, political cartoons, photographs, diaries and letters. And, in the end, what appears from the winter fog and misery is a Christmas story, a fine Christmas story that is, in truth, that most faded and tattered of dust-jacket adjectives, inspiring. It really is.' WALL STREET JOURNAL
'Movingly re-told' DAILY MAIL
'Engrossing' TLS
'Weintraub has written a moving and evocative account of an astonishing piece of modern history, piecing it together from first-hand accounts from both the German and Allied side' EVENING LEADER
'Moving and unsentimental, with some excellent illustrations' IRISH TIMES
'Intriguing' BIRMINGHAM POST
'Fascinating' BRADFORD TELEGRAPH & ARGUS
'Stanley Weintraub's poignant account of the day that one of the worst of wars took a holiday sounds like the stuff of fiction, but it was the sort of event that only fiction can imitate. No wonder that his book reads like a novel, a true story that has the power to haunt' - Robert Cowley, founding editor of MHQ: THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY
'This is an emotionally stirring, uplifting, yet ultimately sad story brilliantly told by a gifted writer'
BOOKLIST
'All credit to Stanley Weintraub for reminding us of the common humanity submerged by violence' SUNDAY EXPRESS
'Books on the Great War are distressing to read, with their tales of suffering, bravery, unimaginable waste of life and the sheer pig-headedness of the generals; SILENT NIGHT, however, recalls a moment of humanity in a place that must have been like hell on earth' INSIGHT
'An enjoyable story showing the human spirit at its finest' THE JOURNAL (Newcastle Upon Tyne)
'Intriguing experiences and adventures of opposing troops before, during and after the truce are expertly choreographed with personal documentations ... SILENT NIGHT is a highly readable celebration of the human spirit, manifesting the absurdities of war' HULL DAILY MAIL
'Weintraub uses first-hand accounts from letters, diaries and unit reports to present a deeply moving story' GLASGOW EVENING TIMES
'A well-crafted story about this astonishing Christmas truce' DORSET ECHO
'Weintraub's account reads like a work of fiction, adding a more dramatic edge to a remarkable story' NOTTINGHAM EVENING POST
'Weintraub explores, and occasionally explodes the myths surrounding this famous series of events ... This is history, warts and all, told with some poignancy and much salient fact' WHAT'S ON IN LONDON
'Stanley Weintraub provides a poignant account of the day in his book. Highly readable' NORTHERN ECHO
'The author finds letters, diaries and unit reports testifying to what actually happened ... bringing it vividly to life' SHEFFIELD TELEGRAPH
'This is an emotionally stirring, uplifting, yet ultimately sad story brilliantly told by a gifted writer' BOOKLIST
'It is a tremendous book and very moving'
Michael Sutherland
*
'Vivid and moving ... He sets out to tell a tale, and since he writes extraordinarily well, he captures our imaginations by the way he tells it' FINANCIAL TIMES (A Stillness Heard Around the World)
'Weintraub makes exceptionally good use of old letters and talk' GUARDIAN
(A Stillness Heard Around the World)
'This volume is a valuable contribution to the genre - a must for the student as well as the casual browser' WORCESTER EVENING NEWS
'Absorbing' DAILY MAIL
'This excellent book is a moving testimony to the power of humanity in the worst of circumstances' GOOD BOOK GUIDE

SILENT NIGHT brings to life one of the most unlikely and touching events in the annals of war. In the early months of WWI, on Christmas Eve, men on both sides left their trenches, laid down their arms, and joined in a spontaneous celebration with their new friends, the enemy. For a brief, blissful time, remembered since in song and story, a world war stopped. Even the participants found what they were doing incredible. Germans placed candle-lit Christmas trees on trench parapets and warring soldiers sang carols. In the spirit of the season they ventured out beyond their barbed wire to meet in No Man's Land, where they buried the dead in moving ceremonies, exchanged gifts, ate and drank together, and joyously played football, often with improvised balls. The truce spread as men defied orders and fired harmlessly into the air. But, reluctantly, they were forced to re-start history's most bloody war. SILENT NIGHT vividly recovers a dreamlike event, one of the most extraordinary of Christmas stories.