World's End

Lanny Budd #1

by Upton Sinclair

From the acclaimed author of The Jungle: The first in a Pulitzer Prize–winning historical saga about the son of an American arms dealer during WWI.

Lanning “Lanny” Budd spends his first thirteen years in Europe, living at the center of his mother’s glamourous circle of friends on the French Riviera. In 1913, he enters a prestigious Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious—but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end.

When the gathering storm clouds of war finally burst, raining chaos and death over the continent, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him; his language skills and talent for decoding messages are in high demand. At his father’s side, he meets many important political and military figures, learns about the myriad causes of the conflict, and closely follows the First World War’s progress. When the bloody hostilities eventually conclude, Lanny joins the Paris Peace Conference as the assistant to a geographer asked by President Woodrow Wilson to redraw the map of Europe.

Perfect for fans of The Winds of War, World’s End is the magnificent opening chapter of a monumental series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to vivid life. A thrilling mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of Upton Sinclair’s vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classics, Historical, Literature, 20th Century, War

920 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906). To gather information for the novel, Sinclair spent seven weeks undercover working in the meat packing plants of Chicago. These direct experiences exposed the horrific conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Jungle has remained continuously in print since its initial publication. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after the initial publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence." In 1943, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Sinclair also ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Socialist, and was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of California in 1934, though his highly progressive campaign was defeated.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first installment in Sinclair's "Lanny Budd" series. It's excellent historical fiction that is thoroughly researched and offers an insight to American history you're not going to get in school. The series begins in the early 1900s when Lanny is a young teen and follows his life in Europe leading up to and through WWI. He lands a role in the peace process and Lanny's description of world events is incisive.

But what is really amazing is the revelation that what the world was fighting over in WWI is exactly what we're fighting over now - Middle East oil. And the motives and players haven't changed.

These books are really long, but really good.

[Kansas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Habia leido La Jungla anteriormente de Upton Sinclair, y aunque es magnifico, no tiene nada que ver con esta serie de Lanny Budd. El fin del Mundo es casi un libro de aventuras, de esos que no puedes dejar de leer, que estás deseando retomarlo estés donde estés, una historia vital y entretenidísima y Lanny es un personaje maravilloso. Muy invisible en nuestro país Upton Sinclair, quizás por lo que decía más arriba y la gente se piense que se puede parecer a La Jungla, que es casi la obra más conocida de Sinclair, y sin embargo, estoy segura de que cualquier acercamiento del lector a Lanny Budd ya es para siempre. Gracias a Hoja de Lata por darle visibilidad, aunque necesita ser todavía más conocido!!

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the beginning of a long journey. The series consists of 11 novels in all and covers the time period from 1913 to 1949. I think there are no short novels in it, but I do hope to read them all. This first installment takes us through the first world war and ends when the peace agreement is signed, June 28, 1919.

Lanny Budd was born at the turn of the century, so it's easy to tell in which year the action takes place, as it is the same as his age. As a character he is real enough. However, it was not believable to me that Lanny is in the right place at the right time to see and experience all that he does, especially given his youth in this novel. Still, I think Sinclair found an interesting vehicle to write his historical fiction of this long and tumultuous period.

There are no gripping scenes where I worried about one character or another. I've read a lot about World War I. Here there was an aspect of the injured recuperating that was different. For me, the most fascinating portion was the last 1/4 or so when Sinclair provides his insight into the Peace Conference. It made me want to read Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World. Sinclair didn't think much of the various personalities who were divvying up the world, but I also expect that all of the greed and infighting was probably near accurate.

Sinclair himself was a socialist. I think he does well that his personal beliefs aren't more prominent, but I would be lying if I said they aren't there at all. It's clear that he has a low opinion of capitalism, though he tries very hard to be balanced. I read this through my own knowledge that socialism is a failed economic system, but also that pure capitalism gives rise to revolution. The swings in governance are not the healthiest for society.

The period covered in this novel saw the Russian Revolution, and I learned it affected the west immediately after the war that was new to me. (Was I asleep in history class or did they just skip that?) As the series continues, I'll be interested to learn what Sinclair has to say about Stalin, or if, given his own political views, he chooses to ignore Soviet totalitarianism.

This is good, but not 5-stars good. I look forward to the next installment.

[Blaine DeSantis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful first book of this 11 volume series about Lanny Budd. Budd is the son of a Connecticut munitions manufacturing family, but lives his first 13 years of life with his mother in the Cote d'Azur of France. He sees his father sporadically when he comes to Europe on business but for the most part he is with his mother whose name is Beauty (I kid you not, but there is a long backstory to this). He eventually goes to Germany to learn the Eurythmic style of dancing and meets and makes friends with one boy from Germany and one from England (whom I assume will be fixtures in the future books). The time period in the book in 1913 thru 1919, and we eventually see Lanny going to CT to meet his American family and then returning to Europe where he stumbles into a position as part of the Paris Peace Conference which led to the Treaty of Versailles. I was captivated by the writing and the book. Sinclair was a Socialist and you can see that point of view coming through during the last half of the book when everything basically focused on the diplomats and the way they carved up the world. Personally I thought that Conference and Treaty was horrible and much of that was the fault of Woodrow Wilson and brought a religious conviction that to solve the worlds problems it was his way or the highway, and unfortunately Wilson was not really a world scholar and had no idea what he was talking about on many issues. Every country was a fault for this, and we see Lanny in the midst of all of this and even see his point of view change dramatically during the book.
It is a fine effort, and written more than 20 years after the events of the book, Sinclair is able to add some perspective and prejudice to these events. It is very heavy on the history part in the the last half of the book, but it is fascinating to see all the machinations that went on in Paris and all the players who were involved. This series was lost for years and thankfully was rediscovered and put in eBook form.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying this so much, I just went and bought the next three of this very long series. Each and every book is very long, an d this pleases me to a T! Bronson Pinchot narrates wonderfully.

In this the first book, three friends, teenagers born right before the turn of the 20th century, are great characters. Through them we compare different nationalities and cultures. We view American, English, German and French ways of behaving. The depiction is spot-on and told with goth wisdom and humor. Having lived in both the USA and Europe, I am given much ro think about and chuckle over. Historical facts are woven into the telling in an engaging manner. WW1 is currently on progress.

Excellent coverage of WW1!

I'm immediately reading the next of the series!

*********************

*The Jungle 3 stars

the Lanny Budd Series:
1. World's End 4 stars
2.Between Two Worlds TBR
3.Dragon's Teeth TBR
4.Wide Is the Gate TBR
more follow

[Austen to Zafón]

Why: This is the first in a series of several books about Lanny Budd, the third of which (Dragon's Teeth) won the Pulitzer in 1943. It has been out of print for years, but is finally back from a small publisher. The edition I saw on Amazon didn't look too pretty, so I'll probably look for a used hardcover. Now that there is a movie (There Will Be Blood) based loosely on Sinclair's novel Oil!, I hope there will be a resurgence of interest in this left-wing, socialist-minded novelist. Here is what the publisher had to say (edited down somewhat):

While this novel is fictional, it is probably one of the best historical views of the 20th Century. At the same time it is extremely funny. The story is applicable to the present day and the foreseeable future in that it politically targets the desire of the West to control oil flow. It starts during the years of pre-WW I and continues through to WW II. It will give the reader a greater understanding of the world events during that period of time. As said in a review, the character of "Larry Budd is extraordinary and realistically portrayed with true emotion and depth". Upton Sincalir left us a truly vivid perspective of the world at this point in history.

[Carolpalanques · Rating 4 out of 5]

Menudo descubrimiento!!!! Este es el primer libro protagonizado por Lanny Budd un personaje de ficción que vive sucesos históricos muy reales en primera persona. En esta primera entrega de la saga he conocido y comprendido por fin la primera guerra mundial de la mano de este joven americano afincado en la Riviera Francesa. Las verdaderas razones que llevaron a los hombres a uno de los mayores sinsentido del sXX , las estrategias de unos y otros, las alianzas entre países, el planteamiento y carácter de los dirigentes del mundo en esos días, los sentimientos de los hombres enviados a morir, el amor en tiempos de guerra, la lucha de clases.... con los Budd y sus amistades he podido vivir en la Europa de principios del siglo pasado y ha sido toda una experiencia, tanto que estoy deseando leer el siguiente de la saga y acompañar a Lanny Budd por los maravillosos años 20. Para todos los amantes de la historia, de las aventuras y de los diferentes puntos de vista para explicar un mismo hecho Lanny Budd es vuestro guía del sXX. Leedlo os va a encantar 😉

[Tabuyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aunque me ha encantado la forma de escribir Upton Sinclair y la trama personal de los personajes, el hecho de haber tanta política y diplomacia me hizo bastante cuesta arriba la lectura.

Aunque no es denso se me hizo pesado en unas cuantas ocasiones por tratar temas políticos, de alianzas y de la venta de armamento por parte del padre de Lanny.

Una pena porque lo que es la historia personal de los personajes me estaba encantando, sobre todo la de su madre.

[Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is just plain good writing. An enjoyable story about a kid growing up with diverse influences. He learns to question everyone and to never say too much.

You can enjoy the pleasantly simple story while absorbing the moral message re the intricate complex undercurrent of global business, and learn a little history too. I wish I would have read this a long time ago.

I think everyone would like to think of themselves as been as open-minded and thoughtful as Lanny Budd. This is likely why I am so attracted to this storyline.

[Antonio Luis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me parece loable el intento, o el logro visto el resultado, de recreación histórica, aunque a mí no ha conseguido fascinarme, probablemente porque he coincidido con muchas lecturas al mismo tiempo y ésta ha quedado un poco relegada mientras disfrutaba más de otras (Tiffany McDaniel, Tan Tawn Eng, Maggie O'Farrell, o David Uclés), que aportaban un tono muy lírico a historias crudas, tono que he echado en falta en Upton Sinclair.
Sólo después de la mitad he ido conectando algo más con la narración, hacia la paz tras la primera guerra mundial. Al principio los personajes me parecían muy remilgados y su contexto muy forzado para servir a los intereses de la historia, aunque después me ha ido resultando más creible, y ha terminado pareciéndome acertado.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the last month or so I spent my reading time in the rarefied world of Lanny Budd, the main character of Upton Sinclair's book World's End. The 599 page book (yes it was long) is the first of an eleven-book series with over 7,000 pages. The story begins when Lanny is an eleven-year-old boy and concludes when he is 19 - in 1919 at the end of World War I. Lanny is the son of a wealthy American arms dealer, but grows up with his mother, Beauty, on the Riviera (his parents never married) among the rich and well connected. The book is a means of relating the history of the time and the road leading up to the first world war and it aftermath. Lanny has a front row seat to the drafting the peace treaty at the end of the war in Paris when he becomes a secretary to one of President Woodrow Wilson's advisors. This last part got rather long and tedious at times.

I enjoyed the book on the whole. The writing is rather old fashioned with a distant third person narrator relating events. What I found most interesting is how much our world problems today are rooted in the World War I treaty, which divided up the world, including the middle east, to benefit the European countries and America by giving them control over oil/gas and other resources. Even thought I did know this basically, it was fascinating to learn about the bargaining and machinations of the treaty process that left the world not a better place. The treaty led directly to World War II with grave consequences into the future.

[Michele Hadlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first of eleven books from the World's End series, also known as the Lanny Budd books. By far my favorite books of all time.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of a series of books. This particular book mostly covers just before until just after World War I. The main character is a young man. He is American, who was born in France, who lives with his mother and his visited by his father occasionally. His father sells weapons, mostly to Europeans. This is especially notable because of World War I. This young man runs into a number of improbable situations so that he can be in the midst of a number of historic situations, including the post World War I Peace council in Paris, following the war, where the surrender of Germany was formalized.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly engaging historical fiction. World War I seen through the eyes of a young American, Lanny Budd, who has grown up in France. We see the culture, social mores, and political conflicts of that period. The teenage Budd is privileged: his father is the son of a munitions manufacturer in New England and provides Lanny (and his mother) an allowance. As he meets people from different socio-economic backgrounds and nationalities and becomes involved with artists, activists, scholars, and politicians, Lanny’s perspectives widen. I plan to gradually read all 11 Lanny Budd novels!

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have yet to be disappointed by a novel from Upton Sinclair, whose work spans the first six decades of the early 20th century. By the time he began this Lanny Budd novel in 1940 -- the first of an eventual eleven-novel series totaling over 7,000 pages that would chronicle Lanny’s life between 1913 and 1950 -- Sinclair was among a handful of major socialist novelists remaining in the United States.

World’s End lacks the fire and sense of immediacy of Sinclair’s early work -- The Jungle, King Coal, Oil!, etc. -- but that’s because its goal is not to engage in muckraking a current social ill, but to trace the course of America’s rise to industrial power in the early 20th century. Lanny (born in 1900) is obviously a character symbolic of the U.S. industrial class as it comes of age between two world wars. We see his early education among the privileged in Europe, as he doesn’t even set foot in the U.S. until he is 17. There is a section where he discovers the infamous slums of East London (which is clearly a nod to socialist classics like Jack London’s The People of the Abyss and Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier ) and is first introduced to the aims of socialism that are so antithetical to his family’s war profiteering empire, emphasizing that Lanny’s story is a microcosm of the U.S. at the turn-of-the-century.

The grandson of a munitions baron, Lanny learns that the impending war has more to do with capitalism than democracy: money, oil, and post-war power. His American family (i.e., the U.S.) sells weapons to any buyer. Since the U.K. and France have more money than Germany, the U.S. sells weapons to them (while remaining “neutral” *ahem*), but ultimately joins the war, naturally allying with the countries who buy the most weapons, and who put the U.S. in the best position to have access to oil in the post-war division of spoils. Sinclair is writing in 1940, so he makes very clear the link between capitalism and fascism that would come to a head in Spain and Germany in the 1930s, the seeds of which were sown in the First World War. Lanny’s grandfather, despite manufacturing and selling the arms that will kill millions, preaches fundamental Christian dogma and leads the local Bible study on his days off from negotiating weapons contracts with warring nations. (As P.F. Sloan would write 25 years later of American cultural values: “Hate your next door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace…”)

The novel is unique from other American WWI novels (Cather’s One of Ours, Dos Passos’ Three Soldiers, Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, etc.) in that the action moves WEST across the Atlantic: it begins in Europe and only then transitions to the U.S. when the war begins. Sinclair is offering the perspective not of the working poor who are tricked into joining the war for the illusory ideal of “making the world safe for democracy,” but of the upper classes who fund the war and make the profits, all from the security of their mansions. As the heir of a wealthy industrialist family, Lanny has the opposite experience of poor American working class men who are raised in the States before being shipped off as canon fodder in Europe: he lives a life of privilege in France, only to flee to the safety of Connecticut while America enters the war. Only after the war does Lanny return as a secretary to a member of Wilson’s delegation as The Big Three attempt to remake the world -- leading to the complications that would not be straightened out until the Second World War.

It is this second half of the book that is the most fascinating, as Sinclair charts both Lanny’s gradual drift to socialism and the political machinations that would continue to play out on the world stage through the Cold War and beyond. The U.S. and France both attempt to deal with Germany in their own way (feeling sympathy and punishing, respectively), while hypocritically advocating for post-war “self determination” while simultaneously ruling over world empires along with the U.K. The scene is set for Lanny’s young adulthood, America’s rapid ascendency in the world, and eventually the rise of fascism in Europe before WWII.

I look forward to following Budd’s journey in the next ten books of the series. Each one is 600-800 pages long, and Sinclair intended these to be one massive 7,000+ page novel, so I imagine it will take me a few years to get through. It’s easy to see why this would lead Sinclair to receive the Pulitzer for the third novel in the series, Dragon's Teeth, in 1942.

[Víctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se me ha hecho un poco largo, pero me ha gustado descubrir la historia de la primera guerra mundial a través del bueno y joven de Lanny Budd. El autor le da un enfoque tan realista que permite vivir y sentir de cerca aquellos acontecimientos. Ayudando a comprender, a quien no lo sepa todavía, cuales son las motivaciones de las guerras... y de las paces! Agradable lectura.

[Lila Gloria Fernández de Castro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adore este libro. Me fascino el personaje principal y vives con el su niñez, y despues su adolescencia. Los personajes bien desarrollados. Los antecedentes historicos muy bien comentados. Estoy deseando seguir con el siguiente volumen.

[James Steele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lanny Budd was born in 1900, and he is about to witness what most Europeans thought would be the end of the world.

He is born into a family of munitions manufacturers. He grew up on the French Rivera. He has an easy life and a guaranteed future. Most of the book is rich people doing rich people things, and Lanny gradually realizing there is a wider world out there. Lots and lots of people do not experience life the way he has. It’s essentially the same character arc as Bunny had in “Oil!” but Lanny’s arc is spread out over multiple books instead of just one.

If you were to ask someone what WWI was about, most people today couldn’t tell you. World’s End was published in 1940, and I imagine people were even less sure about the reasons then. That’s mostly what’s going on here: Lanny realizing that not only did people like his father profit from the war, but their profits are the reason people go to war.

Men like his father buy politicians to gain favors. When they need something, politicians make it happen. If a firearms manufacturer needs access to iron ore, he gets his politicians to go in and take it for him. He holds up peace negotiations so he can keep the valuable land.

Monarchies were easily manipulated this way, and prior to WW1 nations were grabbing territory for this purpose.

Lanny comes into contact with the poor, and hears their discontents. His friends go off to war, and Lanny realizes it has nothing to do with ideals and patriotism but with money. Really, the most interesting parts of the story happen after the war ends, and the peace talks that follow.

If you wanted to understand a politician you mustn’t pay too much attention to his speeches, but find out who were his paymasters. A politician couldn’t rise in public life, in France any more than in America, unless he had the backing of big money, and it was in times of crisis like this that he paid his debts.

Lanny is on the inside as a translator and secretary. He sees the deals happening behind the scenes, the carving up of the world so this government can get these resources on behalf of this industry or that.

Against this backdrop Lanny sees the rise of Communism as the people declaring they are sick of their governments not listening to them and selling out their interests to corporations. They are tired of fighting wars so businessmen can get rich. They are tired of powerful people making decisions on their behalf, rich people buying and selling the world without a care for who is living in those places.

[...] dictatorship was a degradation of the soul of man, and that anyone who took that road would find himself in the valley of the shadow of death. Either Socialism must be the free, democratic choice of the people, or it would be something worse than the rule of Mammon which it sought to replace.

Lanny isn’t sure if he is a Red, but he does get involved in some espionage for what he considers a worthy cause. It’s an easy book to put down because Sinclair does not know how to be brief. This perspective on and explanation for WWI must have been revelatory in 1940 for readers who were puzzled by how the planet got into this mess, and for that it holds up remarkably well because we are still in this mess.

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an exciting glimpse into the events that led to WWI, its duration and immediate aftermath. The book is long and it reads like it was initially a serial (though i don't think it was?)...a series of quandaries and dire straits which are resolved within a chapter or two but meanwhile a couple new ones have been introduced. So, as a reader, you can just keep barreling along as long as you wish. And in fact the end of the book is much the same, in that only some things are resolved, others are left cliffhung, and the first bit of the next in the series is included at the end of the ebook.

It's got some earmarks of books written in the 1940s--racist/sexist slurs from some of the characters, no main characters of color, heavily coded LGBT characters which you wouldn't see if you weren't wise to the coded clues, etc. But wow, it's also just like being right there, the immediacy of the writing is immersive. I'll keep reading this series for sure, and in fact it would probably make good TV show fodder for one of these long-run Netflix or Showtime series.

[Alex Stinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting, compelling read. Appreciate it for what it is: an excellent well written coming of age novel witnessing the events surrounding World War I in france.

[Dawn Dorsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must confess this is the first Upton Sinclair I have read, but it will not be the last. Although Sinclair's socialist views are clear, he also addresses other points of view through his characters, and tries to understand and explain how various parties arrive at their different social biases. The writing is marvelous.

The primary protagonist, Lanny Budd, is so situated in life as to have a front-seat view onto history (novels are such a convenient vehicle), and we experience the build-up to the First World War through his eyes, as an expatriate American who has grown up on the Côte d'Azur, and is comfortable in French salons, English country houses, and German castles alike, with leisure classes, landed gentry, peasants and servants. Through Lanny and his friends, starting when he was thirteen in 1913, we see how so many people managed to deny the oncoming war until it was actually declared, and how they lived or died through it, in France primarily, and peripherally in England, Germany, and America. Sinclair also shows how, concurrent with this Great War, the working class rebellions worldwide were reaching the boiling point, and the Russian Bolsheviks were the noisiest, but far from the only ones fighting their own wars within the Great War, and wanted to take over every country as they did Russia.

Lanny, at nineteen, was also involved in the long drawn-out peace negotiations, and thereby able to give his readers a window into the squabbles and demands of the various parties which finally resulted in such a punitive treaty as to guarantee the next war, even while progressive dreamers like Woodrow Wilson thought they were saving the world with such a treaty, and its new League of Nations. Some of the characters saw clearly that the Treaty of Versailles did little more than set up the next war, and that many of its parties were already fighting it.

This book was first published in 1940, by which time once again the world was at war, and it must have been very difficult to see how it would end. Sinclair had hindsight, but not a very long view, to see how the world had changed with that first great upheaval.

[Nico Beukema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meer dan vijftig jaar zag ik de Lanny Bud-reeks op de boekenplank van mijn ouders staan. Nu wordt die boekenplank ontruimd en is de reeks in mijn bezit gekomen. Deel 1 heb ik nu gelezen. Deze speelt in de periode 1913 tot 1919, een tijd die mij altijd bijzonder interesseert. Het perspectief op deze tijd door de ogen van een opgroeiende puber is anders dan de eerdere boeken die ik hierover heb gelezen. Het leest als een avontuur waarin alle hoofdrolspelers van deze tijd figureren. Het gedeelte over de totstandkoming van het Verdrag van Versailles vond ik een boeiend inkijkje. Evenals de dan al algemeen aanvaarde conclusie dat het verdrag geen vredesverdrag was, maar de prelude voor een nieuwe oorlog. Over de prelude en oorlog gaan de nog komende 10 delen. Ik ben benieuwd.

[♪ Kim N · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visit Unshelfish for more reviews & giveaways

Sinclair dishes out a huge chunk of history in this book, his layout is appealing and it describes more than any textbook. His vehicle to highlight events is the endearing protagonist Lanny Budd. Lanny is 14 years old in 1914 and as the story and events unfold Lanny becomes even more appealing as he enters adulthood through a trying time in history.

Lanny’s character is dramatized by his presence in nearly every major event or has the privilege meeting every notable figure of the time, however, this does not detract but rather creates a fascinating narrative with mystery, suspense, thrills. You can’t help but find yourself taken by Lanny.

If you’re interested in history but avoid nonfiction, you will completely enjoy Sinclair’s historical fiction masterpiece with the nonfiction well presented and researched. Not many know the real issue WWI was centered around – it was more than the assassination of Archduke Ferdindad, much more as traditional classroom textbooks fail to mention. Sinclair offers the opportunity to enjoy history in an easy to read manner through the eyes of impressive Lanny Budd. A wonderful prelude in an 11 book series.

Sinclair’s story is told from the Socialist perspective which adds an interesting spin creating an enthralling read.

[Raime · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unexpectedly competent prose for such a long novel in a series of 11 huge tomes written in such a short time. Last third brings the book somewhat down, because of all the historical backdrops that get in a way of the actual narrative.

"Lanny’s mother, flitting through life like a butterfly over a flower bed, was so charming and so gay that few would ever note how little honey she gathered."

"England would follow her usual rule of losing every battle but the last."

"Women would smile behind their fans, and whisper; but after all there has to be a statute of limitations on scandals."

"A young man wanted to get into “prep school” as quickly as possible, in order that he might get through “prep school” as quickly as possible, in order that he might get into college as quickly as possible, in order that he might get out of college as quickly as possible."

"We have won a victory over the German people and we have now to win the German people to that victory."

[Darcy Lewis · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I was excited about finding a new-to-me high-quality historical series, this book was a slog. The widespread reader comment that Sinclair used Lanny Budd as a historical vehicle a la Forrest Gump more than a fully developed character is right on. It's true that Sinclair covers an enormous amount of Treaty of Versailles political history in a way that would have been very difficult without placing Lanny conveniently at the center of, well, everything. What most interested me is that these events occurred less than a decade before Sinclair wrote about them. I also was intrigued by his frank--for the time--portrayal and discussion of sex. Of course, it's extremely tame by contemporary standards. Not sure I'll give Lanny another go, though.

[Alethea Hammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is considered historical fiction but at the time it was written it was mostly contemporary, at least, in the sense that Sinclair was writing about history that was contemporary to his life. Of course he had to do a lot of research about the Paris Peace Conference and the arms business. I enjoyed the book very much and I felt its only flaw comes from Upton Sinclair's innate ideological preachiness. Otherwise, I totally loved it.

[Mark W. Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book in the Lanny Budd series. This book shows how Lanny developed his political ideas. Great history about the political events concerning WW1. I have read this book 2 or 3 times in the past and am reading through the whole series again.

[Fae Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me want to read more of the Lanny Budd series.

[Robert Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I finish number 11, I'll reread 1,2,and 3 to see all that I missed. The best series ever.