Forgotten Voices of the Great War: A New History of World War I in the Words of the Men and Women Who Were There

In 1972 the Imperial War Museum set about the momentous task of tracing ordinary veterans and survivors of the First World War and interviewing them in detail about their experiences. The Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, which includes first-hand experiences of British, French, German, American, Canadian and Anzac soldiers has since grown to be the most important of its kind in the world and provides a vivid and compelling account of day-to-day life during one of the most harrowing periods of modern history. These tapes, many of which have rested unheard for decades, contain the forgotten voices of a generation no longer with us. In the past, historians have only used a fraction of the material. Now, thirty years on, after hundreds of hours in the archive and unlimited access to the complete WWI tapes, acclaimed author Max Arthur and his researchers have created this remarkable, landmark history of the First World War - told in the words of the ordinary men and women who experienced it first hand.