This is a fascinating treatment of the Great War as a multilingual disaster. Language here is an active agent, a forger of identities, a trigger of memories, and a prism refracting the words of war into the rhetoric of remembrance. Essential reading for those perennially intrigued by the lingering shadow of the 1914-18 conflict.
Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History emeritus, Yale University, USA
This is an important study of a facet of the total war: language. In 1914-18 combatants mobilised language, which evolved to take account of new experiences, while some wartime words had an afterlife which long outlasted the conflict. A enlightening book, it deserves to be widely read.
Gary Sheffield, Professor of War Studies, University of Wolverhampton, UK