Volume 56, Number 10 · June 11, 2009
A Farewell to Arms
By Max Hastings
The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915–1919
by Mark Thompson
Basic Books, 454 pp., $30.00
Many Anglo-Saxons perceive Italy's role in modern history as marginal and verging upon absurdity. Few American or British people contrived to hate Mussolini and his nation in World War II as they hated Hitler and his, because they did not fear Italians in the same way. There were those ponderous jokes that pleased stupid men with large mustaches in English pubs in the 1950s, about Italian tanks lavishly equipped with reverse gears. In June 1915, a Slovene child in the Hapsburg Alpine village of Caporetto, which had just been occupied by the Italians, contributed something to the same legend by exclaiming as he saw Bersaglieri troops cycling toward him in their exotic plumed hats: 'Daddy, daddy, look at all the ladies coming here on bikes!'
Review, 3749 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |