Secret Warriors

Reviews

“An ingenious history that sets aside WWI’s immense slaughter in order to concentrate on those who labored behind the scenes…Downing’s fine history of the war’s most notable weapons—machine guns, tanks, poison gas—precedes chapters giving even finer histories of vast advances in surgery (90% of wounded soldiers in WWI survived, versus 60% during the American Civil War) and sanitation (10% of deaths stemmed from disease in WWI, versus 70% in the Civil War). He also outlines how Hitler and Goebbels admired and emulated Britain’s surprisingly effective journalism and propaganda operations during WWI, which have been adopted by countries at war ever since. For better or worse, these military developments remain with us, and Downing delivers a riveting account of how they happened.”

“Recounts the complete transformation of warfare during World War I, the first industrialized war…Gone was the idea of a gentleman’s war; spying and even chemical warfare were fair game. Those who felt things were ‘just not done’ were overruled by the endless stalemate of trench warfare and brutality of chemical attacks. England’s scientific community successfully overcame pure science’s prejudice against applied science…A meticulously detailed, welcome addition to the literature of World War I, the ‘first “total” war in which all the resources of the state were involved.’”

“Derek Perkins is one of the great audiobook narrators. His clear and well-paced performance makes Downing’s sometimes technical explanations easy to follow, and his deep tone and cultured British accent enhance the experience. Pronouncing names, Perkins seems as at home in French and German as he is in English.”