1915: The Death of Innocence. This item is unavailable.1915: The Death of Innocence

Gathers firsthand accounts of the experiences of ordinary soldiers in World War I, and shows how they adapted to modern warfare

By concentrating on the minutiae of life in the trenches -- the daily battles with cold and damp, the endless scrounging for food, the frantic improvisation required to carry out impossible orders -- Macdonald manages to convey the sheer craziness of the nightmare.

(Sunday Times (London))

Macdonald's narrative, constructed around a succession of remarkable and fresh first-hand accounts, is both compelling and vivid.

(Times Literary Supplement)

Macdonald's heart lies firmly with the common soldiers and junior officers who manned the trenches and followed the orders that all too often cost their lives... The reader feels at times that he is actually in the thick of the battle.

(Newsday)