• The Western Front

  • A History of the Great War, 1914-1918
  • By: Nick Lloyd
  • Narrated by: Mark Elstob
  • Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (87 ratings)

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The Western Front  By  cover art

The Western Front

By: Nick Lloyd
Narrated by: Mark Elstob
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Publisher's summary

The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare.

In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles. From the trenches where men as young as seventeen suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter.

©2021 Nick Lloyd (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about The Western Front

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    5 out of 5 stars

Great look of wold war 1 history

The book gives the reader a great behind the scenes account if the key events of the First World War.

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Breathtaking

Written with depth and verve, clarity and pace. The narration is superb, more like a dramatic play than a stale history. Five stars.

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Incisive Overview

Nick Lloyd has written a most concise and exceptional overview of the Western Front. He stays focused on his objective and doesn’t deviate. He also doesn’t spend too much time bogged down in continual detail. Too often these all encompassing books spend more focused on the Somme or Verdun, as these battles were some of the most memorable and horrific of the war. These are just two examples.

Nor does Lloyd strike a negative tone. World War I was a savage conflict, but so often authors strike a constant negative and fatalistic tone. Though it’s warranted at times, it doesn’t help further the narrative. History is mired in misery and death, and this is not avoidable. Great scholarship, narration, and focus. What a listening. pleasure

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9 people found this helpful

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Great

Concise and entertaining, historically accurate and nuanced. My kind of book, I recommend it to anyone

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3 people found this helpful