Rupert Colley

Another NOOK Bargain. As most of you know, I've been reading books about and/or set in World War I all year. When this one popped up for $1, I had to grab it and see if it lived up to it's billing. IT DID.

I wish I had had this one when I began my reading back in January. Colley sets out to give us a bare bones, just the facts timeline of who did what when, and what the consequences (albeit very spartan) were. By leaving out footnotes and esoteric discussions of various battle theories, by show more omitting chapters and books full of historical background, he manages to give us a clear and naked version of THE WAR and the players. The text itself can probably be read in an hour as advertised. It took me almost two hours, mainly because I kept consulting my trusty historical atlas so I could see exactly where and what he was discussing. I also added some minutes to my read by making several electronic notes (I LOVE E-readers for this very capability) of items I wanted to delve more deeply into.

It is a great little volume, well worth the limited expense. If it had contained one or two maps, it would have been even better.  There are several others in the series that would make good basic introductory reading and fill a need in any library. show less

World War One: History in an Hour can be read in about an hour as claimed. But how well does it cover its topic? I was left with questions. I had little familiarity with World War I when I started the book, so I probably wouldn't notice many factual errors. However, there were enough spelling and typographical/formatting errors to cause me to question the accuracy of the facts presented in the book. I did find one seemingly factual error. In the section of text discussing the execution of show more Edith Cavell, Albert Zimmermann is referred to as Alfred Zimmermann. In a search for more information about Edith Cavell, I discovered that the Wikipedia article also refers to him as “Alfred” rather than “Albert”. Draw your own conclusions here.

The text is arranged topically rather than chronologically. Several times I found myself backtracking in the text to figure out what year something happened, since often the dates provided in the text are only the month and day. While this wasn't the brief introduction to the war I had hoped it would be, I do think the topical arrangement may make it a handy reference source for the additional World War I reading in my plans for the year.

17 Jul 2014 ETA: The author correctly identifies Alfred Zimmermann as the German Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs who wrote a defense of Edith Cavell's execution that was published in the New York Times. A response to Zimmermann's defense written by James Montgomery Beck incorrectly identifies him as Albert Zimmermann. The response was reprinted more than once after its initial publication in the New York Times and copies of the reprints appear in a number of library catalogs, as well as in digital repositories. The author very graciously notified me of the error in my review, and he assures me that he does not use Wikipedia as a primary source for his research. I offer a sincere apology for my error. show less

This was a very interesting read. Mr. Colley loves history and it shows throughout his books. He takes you to the time he's writing about and puts you in the story with his characters. You come to feel for the characters and vicariously live their lives (for better or for worse). This is set during WWII in occupied France and is very intriguing. Well written and very much makes you question what you would have done in their circumstances.

I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily show more chose to review it. show less

It's rare to find a book based in Hungary during the period just before and during the 1956 Uprising.

The descriptions of life under Stalinist rule show just how the lid of the pressure cooker blew off in 1956 and tally with contemporary accounts I have read.

I did however, find the characters somewhat predictable but being only 100 pages it's difficult to expand a character that much.

All in all worth a read if just for a bite sized view of Hungary in the 1950s.