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Erin's Reviews > Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting
Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting
by
by
Reading a nonfiction book when you’re already familiar with much of the content can sometimes grate. I found the manner in which Murphy presented the subject to be engaging and informative. Although there were some points where I felt facts were simplified in ways that left out an important nuance of the events, in general the author presents a balanced depiction of the pressures and prejudices working against Europe at the time. The facts are not dumbed down, but some are slightly simplified for young readers.
Although by necessity for a writer working in English, many of his original sources are British soldiers, he is careful to also include the words of French and German soldiers in both his explanations of the early days of fighting and the actual events on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He does not fall into the trap that some American writers do of portraying the English as heroes while neglecting the German point of view.
By providing this balanced description of the subject, Murphy furthers central idea of the text. He emphasizes the fact that neither side was right in the conflict, and that soldiers on both sides were the victims of, not one another, but the ambition, narrow thinking and misunderstanding of the impacts of modern warfare of their leaders.
Murphy’s use of photographs and eyewitness accounts enables the reader to see the war not is something that happened a long time ago, but something that impacted real individuals like themselves. I found myself wondering about the young man whose names appeared in the text. I wondered what happened to them. If they survive the war. Making that kind of an emotional connection helped the facts of the book stay with me. There is inherent drama in the horrors of trench warfare, and Murphy captures it without being gruesome.
The story of the Christmas truce on the Western Front continues, more than one hundred years later, to be captivating. The fact that these truces came about, independent of one another, up-and-down the Western Front, without, and in fact in spite of orders from above, make them all the more remarkable
Although by necessity for a writer working in English, many of his original sources are British soldiers, he is careful to also include the words of French and German soldiers in both his explanations of the early days of fighting and the actual events on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He does not fall into the trap that some American writers do of portraying the English as heroes while neglecting the German point of view.
By providing this balanced description of the subject, Murphy furthers central idea of the text. He emphasizes the fact that neither side was right in the conflict, and that soldiers on both sides were the victims of, not one another, but the ambition, narrow thinking and misunderstanding of the impacts of modern warfare of their leaders.
Murphy’s use of photographs and eyewitness accounts enables the reader to see the war not is something that happened a long time ago, but something that impacted real individuals like themselves. I found myself wondering about the young man whose names appeared in the text. I wondered what happened to them. If they survive the war. Making that kind of an emotional connection helped the facts of the book stay with me. There is inherent drama in the horrors of trench warfare, and Murphy captures it without being gruesome.
The story of the Christmas truce on the Western Front continues, more than one hundred years later, to be captivating. The fact that these truces came about, independent of one another, up-and-down the Western Front, without, and in fact in spite of orders from above, make them all the more remarkable
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Truce.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
November 1, 2017
–
Finished Reading
November 14, 2017
– Shelved
