Verdun: The Longest Battle of the Great War

Jankowski (history, Brandeis Univ.; Stavisky: A Confidence Man in the Republic of Virtue) examines Verdun as the quintessential battle of World War I. Like the war itself, the Battle of Verdun (February through December 1916) accomplished little while devouring soldiers at a prodigious rate. Rather than telling how the battle was fought, Jankowski tries to answer why it was fought—the most perplexing question for historians, as the town and its fortifications were of limited strategic importance to either France or Germany—and what the battle meant for those engaged in the fighting. Erich von Falkenhayn, the primary German architect of the battle, claimed later that his goal was to bleed France dry so that it was forced to accept a German peace. However, Jankowski makes an excellent case that this was not originally Germany's intention and, in any case, cannot explain why the battle was fought for so long. In addition, he gives substantial attention to the role of the battle in the national memories of Germany and especially France.