This 1917 book review was published in an American magazine shortly after President Wilson and the U.S. Congress declared war on the Central powers. The book in question, The battle of the Somme, was written by Philip Gibbs (1877 – 1962) one of Britain’s most prolific war correspondents.
“More, perhaps than any other correspondent ‘at the front’, Mr. Gibbs has illustrated how it is possible to take death and make literature of that. For in his book he pictures death, not less than life, and makes literature of it; makes chapters with a real literary flavor.”
Highly respected among his peers and the reading public, Gibbs was knighted for his efforts at the war’s end but soon he let the world know what he really thought of the war and, in particular, his feelings concerning General Douglas Haig (“The Realities of War”, 1920).
Gibbs wrote a number of books that were critical of war, click here to read a review of More That Must Be Told (1921).
