Rating: 
Summary: Superb
Review: Deeply moving and beautifully written.A personal journey across the battlefields of Europe that will haunt the reader for a long time to come. Unforgettable.
Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: Deeply moving and beautifully written.A personal journey across the battlefields of Europe that will haunt the reader for a long time to come. Unforgettable.
Rating: 
Summary: You would have walked it and written it youself.
Review: For those of us whom have read Macdonald's "Somme", Tuchman's matchless "August 1914", or Cecil's "Flowers of Battle", this book is a cumulation and a closure. Having done the preparatory reading of the histories and the literature of W.W.I; with O'Shea we follow his journey into the geography of both.O'Shea is a walking tour of literature, history, geography, politics, tactics, and culture; with many a comment directed toward us the grandchildren of those so twisted in self-destruction that it is still in evidence on the landscape eight decades after; it is still reflected in the politics of today. His is a walking commentary, with reference to and critique of every social aspect that contributed to and resulted from the Western Front. O'Shea's observation is clear. The losers in war list their dead individually, so the endless drone of the recitation of the names of the victims will mask the names of the criminal.The statistics of the Great War are still staggering: From the Battle of the Somme, 73,412 bodies unidentified, 600,000 known dead just on the Allied side, one battle. From the Battle of the Argonne, more shot and shell fired in 72 hours than in the entire US Civil War. From Verdun, 60,000 French dead in 60 minutes. This book should make you sick, this book should clear you head of any military pretensions for your son or daughters. If you've bulked up on W.W.I. history and literature and need a book to pull it all together, this is that book. Put it up on your shelf next to Fussell, Junger, and Barker.
Rating:
Summary: A good start....
Review: Having just started my literay exploration of World War One, I found this book enlightening. Once you run out of fictional accounts and want to move into the actual histories you will imediately find that those dry military obsessed tomes are written for those "war buffs" who give this book a bad review. This book is for those both facinated and horrified by WW1. I just finnished the Regeneration Trilogy and I find this book a good way to ease into the historical end of things.Its not the be all to end all of the history, but really can we expect any one book to be that? Further, as a fellow Canadian and "Leftist Pacifist", as those gun-ho yanks describe... I can totally understand his motivation. The Great War had a huge impact on Canada, we didn't have a revolution or a Civil War. Here in Manitoba virtually all monuments and statues honor the many lost in The Great War. Growing up around these symbols, its easy to be both pacifist and facinated by the Great War. Personal Trivia: I grew up a street away from one named Vimy, I had a friend who lived on Valour road, named after the war for three men from that street who all won the VC. Our house of Goverment , the Legislative Bldg, its main dome features a large painting of the suffering in the trenches, it was completed in 1918.... The great war remains very real in the symbols here today.
Rating:
Summary: The Statistics say it all
Review: I am an American living in Switzerland. I picked up this book because I want to visit some of the battlefields within driving distance of my home. O'Shea's book was not what I expected, but I found myself turning the pages in fascination. The unbelieveable statistics of death in these battles (e.g. the first hours of the Somme) are almost impossible to imagine. Many of the following reviews attack O'Shea's condemnation of the generals who supervised this slaughter, describing O'Shea as having a '1960's' view of history. I can't imagine how anyone could defend what happened during this war no matter what their politics or when they were born. The statistics say it all - it is beyone belief. Thank God neither I, nor my sons, will fight in such a wasteful and disastrous war.
Rating:
Summary: Back to the Front
Review: I found this book to be excellent for bringing the territories and peoples of today's Front to life. While it's not as effective as "Confederates in the Attic" on the same type of subjects, I still found it invaluable as an introduction to the war. The recommended reading section in the back has already yielded a stupendous book for me ("Guns of August"), and I look forward to continuing to digest the reading list.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply Moving
Review: I loved this book. I spent 30 years in the British Army and walked these battlefields many times. To those who know little of war, it is easy to dismiss this author's ideas. But to those of us who have direct experience of military stupidity, the kind of leadership that wastes lives, the kind of foolishness that the common soldier rises above, the author's words ring true. The description of the Western Front is beautifully done and over all this book is quite exceptional.
Rating: 
Summary: O'Shea misinterpreted World War I.
Review: I picked this book up with high hopes that it would be a good walking guide to the Western Front. Although, I find that O'Shea does give an interesting guide to the Western Front I got hung up on his leftist-pacfist views of the war. Unfortunetly, he takes with him the '60s attitude that war is wrong and people who are interested in it are "geeks". At one point he claims that the French munities in 1917 was the greatest hour of the French army. This is an increadible statement for someone to make. Although, conditions were terrible this was not there finest hour. He also refers to Sgt. Alvin C. York as a hick and yokel. This is unacceptable, I have never heard someone refer to a Medal of Honor winner as a hick. O'Shea claims that "war is not something to be left to the professionals." Frankly after reading Mr. O'Shea's book I feel that we should not leave war up to men like him. The professionals should take care of it. He keeps going back to his grandfather's expierences in the war and how they never talked about it. Well I would like to say that it was men like his grandfather who let him write his leftist material today. Finally, I take great offensive at him referring to Military historians as "geeks" in the text. Many military historians are far from that and what is a geek anyway? I would recommend that people buy a different book.
Rating:
Summary: This guy is DEFINITELY NOT a historian!
Review: I purchased this book with the idea that I might get some more insight into the tragedy of WW1. While O'Shea DID grant me some new insights, I was extremely put off by his attacks on all miltary (professional soldiers are all idiots), historians (geeks), etc. Also, (and to some this may seem petty) his factual errors on minor areas (eg, he says Rickenbacker had 23 kills) and comparing Little Big Horn to My Lai, lead to question what other statements of fact he makes may also be questionable. I feel that overall I wasted my money on this purchase. Those who MAY enjoy the book would include pseudo-intellectual leftists who still think this is the 1960's!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent travel diary...
Review: I really liked "Back to the Front". I have visited the western front several times and Stephen O'Shea captures a lot of my feelings about those visits... the sense of futility, lonliness, fear (walking alone in some of the shell-torn woodlands is not for the faint-hearted). The fields of northern France are also strangely peaceful and relaxing. As Geoff Dyer wrote in his excellent book "The Missing of the Somme", its as if nature has imbued the countryside with a sense of peace and tranquilty after great violence... there is no room for empty nationalism or hatred there. Great book, and highly recommended.
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