11TH MONTH, 11TH DAY, 11TH HOUR Armistice Day, 1918: World War I and Its Violent Climax

On the morning of November 11, 1918, at 5:00 A.M., the armistice to end WWI was signed, but the peace was not scheduled to go into effect until 11:00 A.M. In the few intervening hours Allied commanders continued to send thousands of soldiers on last-minute assaults on the front lines. Using that last day as an analogy for the entire war and drawing from hundreds of letters, personal accounts, and diaries, Joseph Persico weaves an engrossing history of a time of unprecedented blunders and bravery. With a keen sense of sympathy and nobility, Jonathan Marosz's voice perfectly captures the book's dual purpose to honor all the lives that were lost and affected by the war and to intelligently examine the "ferocity, bloodiness, and uselessness" that set the stage for much of the twentieth century. B.P. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE/JULY 05]