Synopses & Reviews
and#147;Powerful and often startlingand#133;The Deserters offers a provokingly fresh angle on this most studied of conflicts.and#8221; --The Boston Globe
A groundbreaking history of ordinary soldiers struggling on the front lines, The Deserters offers a completely new perspective on the Second World War. Charles Glassand#151;renowned journalist and author of the critically acclaimed Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupationand#151;delves deep into army archives, personal diaries, court-martial records, and self-published memoirs to produce this dramatic and heartbreaking portrait of men overlooked by their commanders and ignored by history.
Surveying the 150,000 American and British soldiers known to have deserted in the European Theater, The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II tells the life stories of three soldiers who abandoned their posts in France, Italy, and Africa. Their deeds form the backbone of Glassand#8217;s arresting portrait of soldiers pushed to the breaking point, a sweeping reexamination of the conditions for ordinary soldiers.
With the grace and pace of a novel, The Deserters moves beyond the false extremes of courage and cowardice to reveal the true experience of the frontline soldier. Glass shares the story of men like Private Alfred Whitehead, a Tennessee farm boy who earned Silver and Bronze Stars for bravery in Normandyand#151;yet became a gangster in liberated Paris, robbing Allied supply depots along with ordinary citizens. Here also is the story of British men like Private John Bain, who deserted three times but never fled from combatand#151;and who endured battles in North Africa and northern France before German machine guns cut his legs from under him. The heart of The Deserters resides with men like Private Steve Weiss, an idealistic teenage volunteer from Brooklyn who forced his fatherand#151;a disillusioned First World War veteranand#151;to sign his enlistment papers because he was not yet eighteen. On the Anzio beachhead and in the Ardennes forest, as an infantryman with the 36th Division and as an accidental partisan in the French Resistance, Weiss lost his illusions about the nobility of conflict and the infallibility of American commanders.
Far from the bright picture found in propaganda and nostalgia, the Second World War was a grim and brutal affair, a long and lonely effort that has never been fully reportedand#151;to the detriment of those who served and the danger of those nurtured on false tales today. Revealing the true costs of conflict on those forced to fight, The Deserters is an elegant and unforgettable story of ordinary men desperately struggling in extraordinary times.
Review
"A story of extraordinary precision... absorbing." --
Financial Times "Rich in intrigue and heroism... a fascinating treat." --Antony Beevor, Daily Telegraph (UK)
"Glass, a world-class journalist, proves a gifted historian in this electrifying account of resistance, collaboration, terror, and valor." -- Parade magazine
"[Glass] skillfully uses memoirs, diaries, letters, documents and official records to draw a picture of expatriates caught in a mesh of deceit, bravery, self-sacrifice and fear, and places them in the context of diplomacy and the wider war." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Review
andquot;A story of extraordinary precision... absorbing.andquot; --
Financialandnbsp;Times andquot;Rich in intrigue and heroism... a fascinating treat.andquot;andnbsp;--Antony Beevor, Daily Telegraph (UK)
andquot;Glass, a world-class journalist, proves a gifted historian in this electrifying account of resistance, collaboration, terror, and valor.andquot;andnbsp;-- Parade magazine
andquot;[Glass] skillfully uses memoirs, diaries, letters, documents and official records to draw a picture of expatriates caught in a mesh of deceit, bravery, self-sacrifice and fear, and places them in the context of diplomacy and the wider war.andquot;andnbsp;--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Review
"Sensitive and thought-provoking and#8230; As this compelling and well-researched book shows, the battlefield was not a place for heroes, but a place where young men were dehumanised and killed and#8230; Given such conditions who among us would not also have considered walking away?" --
Sunday Telegraph (UK)
and#8216;[These] stories of individual human beings who eventually cracked under the strain of hardly imaginable fear and misery and#8211; are wonderful, unforgettable acts of witness, something salvaged from a time already sinking into the black mud of the past." --The Guardian (UK)
"Gripping and#8230; painstaking and#8230; sympathetic and#8230; Glass reveals just how inglorious war really is." --TImes (UK)
"Remarkable." --Sunday Times (UK)
and#8216;With his own skill and sensitivity, Glass recreates the inhuman scenes that pummel the other soldiers he examinesand#8230; refreshing and stimulating and#8211; history told from the loserand#8217;s perspective." --Daily Telegraph (UK)
and#8216;What is that pitiful sound? The wail of a thousand military historians wishing they had thought of an idea as original as Charles Glass in [The Deserters]." Sunday Express (UK)
Review
and#8220;
The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II, by the historian and former ABC News foreign correspondent Charles Glass, thus performs a service. Itand#8217;s the first book to examine at length the sensitive topic of desertions during this war, and the facts it presents are frequently
revealing and heartbreakingand#8230; The Deserters has much to say about soldiers' hearts. It underscores the truth of the following observation, made by a World War II infantry captain named Charles B. MacDonald: 'It is always an enriching experience to write about the American soldier in adversity no less than in glittering triumph.'" --Dwight Garner,
The New York Times
and#8220;A veteran correspondent in war zones, Glass is richly credentialed to write The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II. He is qualified by talent, by the good fortune of finding surviving veterans, and by exploring their lives with diligence and, most crucially, a deep compassionand#8230; Glass tells the soldiers' stories with novelistic vividness and a good historian's grasp of research detail." --San Francisco Chronicle
"Glass brings something new to the table by going deep with desertion, an overlooked aspect of the wartime experience. The result is an impressive achievement: a boot-level take on the conflict that is fresh without being cynically revisionist... [Glass] pulled off something special here: showing respect to what the deserters endured while acknowledging that the warand#8212;gruesome and unfair and nonsensical though it wasand#8212;had to be won, and that this happened because enough men somehow found the will to keep going." --The New Republic
"[Q]uite provocative... A well-written, fast-moving treatment of an issue still relevant today." --Kirkus
"Sensitive and thought-provoking and#8230; As this compelling and well-researched book shows, the battlefield was not a place for heroes, but a place where young men were dehumanised and killed and#8230; Given such conditions who among us would not also have considered walking away?" --Sunday Telegraph (UK)
"[These] stories of individual human beings who eventually cracked under the strain of hardly imaginable fear and misery and#8211; are wonderful, unforgettable acts of witness, something salvaged from a time already sinking into the black mud of the past." --The Guardian (UK)
"Gripping and#8230; painstaking and#8230; sympathetic and#8230; Glass reveals just how inglorious war really is." --Times (UK)
Review
The Boston Globe: and#8220;Powerful and often startlingand#8230;The Deserters offers a provokingly fresh angle on this most studied of conflictsand#8230; This is a stripped down, unromanticized, intimate history of battle in all of its confusion, chaos, terror, and moral ambiguity. Intricately structured and#8212; the author deftly juggles three narrative strands and#8212; and beautifully paced to build suspense, this tightly focused account, which draws on memoirs, archives, police files, psychiatric records, is neither reverent nor disapproving.and#8221;
The Wall Street Journal:
and#8220;By focusing on the stories of three desertersand#8212;two Americans, one Britonand#8212;Mr. Glass argues persuasively that deserters weren't the cowards of popular assumption but rational men making a natural choice to stay aliveand#8230; Mr. Glass has conscientiously trawled through court-martial records and U.S. and British files, and he has spent many hours tape-recording interviews with deserters, but he has also been lucky enough to be allowed access to the unpublished memoirs of one deserter, Steve Weiss, as well as the correspondence of several others. Such material gives the author an intimate view into the mind of the wartime deserter.and#8221;
The Washington Post:
and#8220;[The Deserters] does provide an intimate look at the whys and wherefores of three men who opted out of the front lines. At a time when the ravages of war in Iraq and Afghanistan have made the general public more aware than ever of the price too many soldiers pay for their service, that helps.and#8221;
Dwight Garner,and#160;The New York Times:
and#8220;The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II, by the historian and former ABC News foreign correspondent Charles Glass, thus performs a service. Itand#8217;s the first book to examine at length the sensitive topic of desertions during this war, and the facts it presents are frequentlyand#160;revealing and heartbreakingand#8230;and#160;The Desertersand#160;has much to say about soldiers' hearts. It underscores the truth of the following observation, made by a World War II infantry captain named Charles B. MacDonald: 'It is always an enriching experience to write about the American soldier in adversity no less than in glittering triumph.'"
San Francisco Chronicle:
and#8220;A veteran correspondent in war zones, Glass is richly credentialed to writeand#160;The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II. He is qualified by talent, by the good fortune of finding surviving veterans, and by exploring their lives with diligence and, most crucially, a deep compassionand#8230;and#160;Glass tells the soldiers' stories with novelistic vividness and a good historian's grasp of research detail."
The New Republic:
"Glass brings something new to the tableand#160;by going deep with desertion, an overlooked aspect of the wartime experience. The result isand#160;an impressive achievement: a boot-level take on the conflict that is fresh without being cynically revisionist... [Glass] pulled off something special here: showing respect to what the deserters endured while acknowledging that the warand#8212;gruesome and unfair and nonsensical though it wasand#8212;had to be won, and that this happened because enough men somehow found the will to keep going."
Publishers Weekly (starred):
"Glass is to be commended for his take on WWII through the eyes of those who ran away from it... Glass's history might be one of the best ways of relaying the experience of war: through the eyes of the young men who charged into the line of fire, gave up the ghost, and whose only reward was living to tell the tale."
Kirkus Reviews
"[Q]uite provocative... A well-written, fast-moving treatment of an issue still relevant today."
Sunday Telegraphand#160;(UK):
"Sensitive and thought-provoking and#8230; As this compelling and well-researched book shows, the battlefield was not a place for heroes, but a place where young men were dehumanised and killed and#8230; Given such conditions who among us would not also have considered walking away?"
The Guardianand#160;(UK):
"[These] stories of individual human beings who eventually cracked under the strain of hardly imaginable fear and misery and#8211; are wonderful, unforgettable acts of witness, something salvaged from a time already sinking into the black mud of the past."
Timesand#160;(UK):
"Gripping and#8230; painstaking and#8230; sympathetic and#8230; Glass reveals just how inglorious war really is."
Sunday Timesand#160;(UK):
"Remarkable."
Daily Telegraphand#160;(UK): "With his own skill and sensitivity, Glass recreates the inhuman scenes that pummel the other soldiers he examinesand#8230; refreshing and stimulatingand#8212;history told from the loserand#8217;s perspective."
Synopsis
Acclaimed journalist Charlie Glass looks to the American expatriate experience of Nazi-occupied Paris to reveal a fascinating forgotten history of the greatest generation. In Americans in Paris, tales of adventure, intrigue, passion, deceit, and survival unfold season by season, from the spring of 1940 to liberation in the summer of 1944, as renowned journalist Charles Glass tells the story of a remarkable cast of expatriates and their struggles in Nazi Paris. Before the Second World War began, approximately thirty thousand Americans lived in Paris, and when war broke out in 1939 almost five thousand remained. As citizens of a neutral nation, the Americans in Paris believed they had little to fear. They were wrong. Glass's discovery of letters, diaries, war documents, and police files reveals as never before how Americans were trapped in a web of intrigue, collaboration, and courage.
Artists, writers, scientists, playboys, musicians, cultural mandarins, and ordinary businessmen-all were swept up in extraordinary circumstances and tested as few Americans before or since. Charles Bedaux, a French-born, naturalized American millionaire, determined his alliances as a businessman first, a decision that would ultimately make him an enemy to all. Countess Clara Longworth de Chambrun was torn by family ties to President Roosevelt and the Vichy government, but her fiercest loyalty was to her beloved American Library of Paris. Sylvia Beach attempted to run her famous English-language bookshop, Shakespeare and Company, while helping her Jewish friends and her colleagues in the Resistance. Dr. Sumner Jackson, wartime chief surgeon of the American Hospital in Paris, risked his life aiding Allied soldiers to escape to Britain and resisting the occupier from the first day. These stories and others come together to create a unique portrait of an eccentric, original, diverse American community.
Charles Glass has written an exciting, fast-paced, and elegant account of the moral contradictions faced by Americans in Paris during France's dangerous occupation years. For four hard years, from the summer of 1940 until U.S. troops liberated Paris in August 1944, Americans were intimately caught up in the city's fate. Americans in Paris is an unforgettable tale of treachery by some, cowardice by others, and unparalleled bravery by a few.
Synopsis
Acclaimed journalist Glass looks to the American expatriate experience of Nazi-occupied Paris to reveal a fascinating forgotten history of the greatest generation. A moving and deeply thought-provoking book.--"Sunday Telegraph."
Synopsis
An unforgettable portrait of Paris and Vichy France during the Nazi occupation
Americans in Paris recounts tales of adventure, intrigue, passion, deceit, and survival under the brutal Nazi occupation through the eyes of the Americans who lived through it all. Renowned journalist Charles Glass tells the story of a remarkable cast of five thousand expatriates--artists, writers, scientists, playboys, musicians, cultural mandarins, and ordinary businessmen--and their struggles in Nazi Paris. Glass's discovery of letters, diaries, war documents, and police files reveals as never before how Americans were trapped in a web of intrigue, collaboration, and courage.
Synopsis
A fast-paced narrative history of World War II centered on the little explored subject of deserters A tale that redefines the ordinary soldier in the Second World War, The Deserters is a breathtaking work of historical reportage, weaving together the lives of forgotten servicemen even as it overturns the assumptions and prejudices of an era. The Deserters reveals that ordinary soldiers viewed “desertion” as a natural part of conflict, as unexpected and unexplainable as bravery. Men who had fought fearlessly in the mountains of Italy were cowering wrecks a year later in the mountains of France; a man who fled from tanks in the desert showed superior courage in the D-Day amphibious landings. Many front-line soldiers saw no shame in these contradictory reactions and sought ways to comfort their comrades to fight another day.
With all the grace and pace of a novel, The Deserters moves beyond the false extremes of courage and cowardice to reveal the true experience of the Allied soldier. This is the story of men such as Private Alfred Whitehead, a Tennessee farm boy who earned Silver and Bronze stars for bravery in Normandy—yet became a gangster in post-liberation Paris, robbing Allied supply depots along with restaurants and ordinary citizens. It is the story of British soldiers such as Private John Bain, who deserted three times but fought well in North Africa and northern France until German machine-gun fire cut his legs from under him. The core of The Deserters resides with men such as Private Stephen Weiss, an idealistic boy from Brooklyn who enlisted at seventeen. On the Anzio beachhead and in the Ardennes forest, as an ordinary infantryman and an accidental partisan in the French Resistance, Weiss shed his illusions about the nobility of conflict and the infallibility of the American military.
Leading us through the moral twists and turns of The Deserters is Charles Glass, renowned journalist and author of the critically acclaimed Americans in Paris. Meticulously researched and deeply revelatory, The Deserters remains at its heart an unforgettable war story that, like the very best of the genre, deals with ordinary men struggling to fulfill the vast and contradictory expectations imposed upon them.
Synopsis
"[A]n impressive achievement: a boot-level take on the conflict that is fresh without being cynically revisionist."
--The New Republic
A groundbreaking history of ordinary soldiers struggling on the front lines, The Deserters offers a completely new perspective on the Second World War. Charles Glassand#151;renowned journalist and author of the critically acclaimed Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupationand#151;delves deep into army archives, personal diaries, court-martial records, and self-published memoirs to produce this dramatic and heartbreaking portrait of men overlooked by their commanders and ignored by history.
Surveying the 150,000 American and British soldiers known to have deserted in the European Theater, The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II tells the life stories of three soldiers who abandoned their posts in France, Italy, and Africa. Their deeds form the backbone of Glassand#8217;s arresting portrait of soldiers pushed to the breaking point, a sweeping reexamination of the conditions for ordinary soldiers.
With the grace and pace of a novel, The Deserters moves beyond the false extremes of courage and cowardice to reveal the true experience of the frontline soldier. Glass shares the story of men like Private Alfred Whitehead, a Tennessee farm boy who earned Silver and Bronze Stars for bravery in Normandyand#151;yet became a gangster in liberated Paris, robbing Allied supply depots along with ordinary citizens. Here also is the story of British men like Private John Bain, who deserted three times but never fled from combatand#151;and who endured battles in North Africa and northern France before German machine guns cut his legs from under him. The heart of The Deserters resides with men like Private Steve Weiss, an idealistic teenage volunteer from Brooklyn who forced his fatherand#151;a disillusioned First World War veteranand#151;to sign his enlistment papers because he was not yet eighteen. On the Anzio beachhead and in the Ardennes forest, as an infantryman with the 36th Division and as an accidental partisan in the French Resistance, Weiss lost his illusions about the nobility of conflict and the infallibility of American commanders.
Far from the bright picture found in propaganda and nostalgia, the Second World War was a grim and brutal affair, a long and lonely effort that has never been fully reportedand#151;to the detriment of those who served and the danger of those nurtured on false tales today. Revealing the true costs of conflict on those forced to fight, The Deserters is an elegant and unforgettable story of ordinary men desperately struggling in extraordinary times.
About the Author
CHARLES GLASS was the chief Middle East correspondent for ABC News from 1983 to 1993 and has covered wars in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. He is the author of
Americans in Paris, Tribes with Flags, The Tribes Triumphant, Money for Old Rope, and
The Northern Front. His writing has appeared in
Harperand#8217;s Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, The Independent, and
The Spectator. Born in Los Angeles, Glass divides his time among Paris, Tuscany, and London.
www.charlesglass.net