Rating: 
Summary: Gritty account of trench-life
Review: 'Eye-deep in Hell' is an excellent, short view of life for the (principally British) soldier on the Western Front. The descriptions, pictures, and excerpts get the reader down into the grit of life in the trenches. I couldn't put it down!
Rating: 
Summary: Postales desde el frente
Review: A pesar de no ser un lector angloparlante y dado que son pocos los libros sobre la 1ra Guerra Mundial editados en idioma español, tuve que poner el diccionario a mi lado y tratar de entender los numerosos giros idiomaticos que utiliza el texto, sobre todo cuando se trata de racontos de los propios protagonistas del combate.
El libro esta muy bien presentado, los capitulos tratados en detalle y con una secuencia de fotografia que ilustran el coraje y el sufrimiento de los hombres en las trincheras.
Me parecio sobre todo interesante la parte dedicada a la alimentacion de los hombres, las peripecias que tenian que hacer los equipos de busqueda de comida y la peligrosidad e importancia de su mision, que aqui no se ve soslayada.
Ojala este libro sea traducido en algun momento al español, porque considero que todo estudioso del tema se vera favorecido y tendra acceso a una obra de notable valor.
Rating:
Summary: Postales desde el frente
Review: A pesar de no ser un lector angloparlante y dado que son pocos los libros sobre la 1ra Guerra Mundial editados en idioma español, tuve que poner el diccionario a mi lado y tratar de entender los numerosos giros idiomaticos que utiliza el texto, sobre todo cuando se trata de racontos de los propios protagonistas del combate.
El libro esta muy bien presentado, los capitulos tratados en detalle y con una secuencia de fotografia que ilustran el coraje y el sufrimiento de los hombres en las trincheras.
Me parecio sobre todo interesante la parte dedicada a la alimentacion de los hombres, las peripecias que tenian que hacer los equipos de busqueda de comida y la peligrosidad e importancia de su mision, que aqui no se ve soslayada.
Ojala este libro sea traducido en algun momento al español, porque considero que todo estudioso del tema se vera favorecido y tendra acceso a una obra de notable valor.
Rating:
Summary: The Trench War Reviled
Review: A well written book, easy to grasp and very informative. The horrors of the trench war are well described. One of the best books on the subject!
Rating:
Summary: The Trench War Reviled
Review: A well written book, easy to grasp and very informative. The horrors of the trench war are well described. One of the best books on the subject!
Rating:
Summary: Gritty, worms eye view
Review: An excellent social history of the First World War. Ellis begins by explaining how the trench warfare stalemate began, before devling into a an exceptional account of what daily life was like for soldiers on the western front (from rations, to medical problems, to daily details and combat.) The one drawback is that the book is exclusive to the Western Front, and primarily explores the British perspective. Nonetheless a very good read.
Rating:
Summary: Gritty, worms eye view
Review: An excellent social history of the First World War. Ellis begins by explaining how the trench warfare stalemate began, before devling into a an exceptional account of what daily life was like for soldiers on the western front (from rations, to medical problems, to daily details and combat.) The one drawback is that the book is exclusive to the Western Front, and primarily explores the British perspective. Nonetheless a very good read.
Rating:
Summary: A searing glimpse at the individuals caught in mass warfare
Review: As a young girl, I was transfixed by the emotional battleground depicted in Vera Brittain's TESTAMENT OF YOUTH. This experience soon filled my bookshelves with World War I literature. EYE DEEP IN HELL is filled with the just the sort of human detail that connects the reader with the participants in the Great War. Everything is there-from battles to satirical songs to the chief survivors of horrific battles: the lice! We suffer with trench foot and hope for a "blighty"--the wound that will send us home. We are supplied with endless quantities of plum and apple jam, yet long for drinkable water. We long for home--yet find that the trench line is a psychological barrier that separates a soldier forever from the non-soldier. I would heartily recommend this book to any reader who wishes to read social history at its most riveting.
Rating:
Summary: An up close and personal view of WWI
Review: Ellis brings the reader right into the trenches. For a Generation X-er like myself, with no direct experience of war, Eye Deep in Hell taught me as much about what it was like to fight in the Great War as Stephen Ambrose' Citizen Soldiers did about the European Theatre of WWII. The dangers of trench foot, mustard gas and barb wire seep off the pages. Graphic photos and excellent illustrations bring the labyrinth of trenches into focus. Anecdotes of individual soldier's stories pepper the grim landscape. Ellis manages to paint a human picture on the gray canvas of No Man's Land, and the trenches which surrounded it. Highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding the average foot soldier's experience of World War I.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent social history
Review: Eye-Deep in Hell is not about the tactics or strategy of World War One. If you are interested in that, I would recommend John Keegan's The First World War. However, if you want to know what it was like for the average footsolider to live, fight and die in the trenches of France and Belgium, this is the book to buy. Ellis graphically describes the privations, the horrid living conditions, the food, the organization of the trenches, and the minutae of daily life that made the First World War so terrible. An entire chapter is devoted to the reality of fighting - what it was like to patrol at night, to "go over the top" and what happened to the casualties. Of the thousands of books on WWI, this is one of the few to provide a glimpse of what the common British soldier experienced. For that, I recommend it to anyone interested in this time period.
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