The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century

Nonfiction book fans have likely noticed the recent flurry of books published on the First World War. The deluge is reaching its peak this year on the centennial of the war’s beginning. In The Long Shadow, eminent historian David Reynolds chooses to focus on the impact of the Great War: first on the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, and secondly on the second half of the twentieth century. He also touches on the continental European experience, often ignored by the American public and historians alike in favor of the British narrative of the war.

The Long Shadow will not satisfy those readers who are looking for an in-depth treatment of the war itself, though Reynolds does give a quick refresher of the war’s major players and turning points. Historians, depending on their focus area, may find Reynolds’ reframing of earlier treatments of the war by writers like Barbara Tuchman, Paul Fussell, and Modris Ecksteins satisfying or lacking. What the book does achieve, however, is a reasoned and well-researched reexamination of the impact of the first truly global war on the twentieth century.