Why read The Christmas Truce?

Book cover of The Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, and the First World War

Book description

In late December 1914, German and British soldiers on the western front initiated a series of impromptu, unofficial ceasefires. Enlisted men across No Man's Land abandoned their trenches and crossed enemy lines to sing carols, share food and cigarettes, and even play a little soccer. Collectively known as the Christmas…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Christmas Truce as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Keith Grint

Author

The Christmas ‘Truce’ of December 1914 is both well-known and widely mythologized. What Crocker does is take the conventional account that insists on a sanitized and good-natured holiday break between warring nations, and subjects that narrative to a critical approach. This exposes a whole gamut of alternative understandings, including the way that the military establishments on both sides struggled to contain the dissent and fought hard to represent it, not as a mutiny, but as a mutual agreement between two chivalrous armies.

From Keith's list on The best books on mutiny, and how to lead or avoid them.