Status Updates From The Road to Verdun: France,...

I've wanted to read more about Verdun, about which I know almost nothing, for years. I wanted to read about it because of how it dovetails with the Battle of the Somme. But this introduction makes me think I should have read about it much, much earlier.

Rather dry but an interest case on the national mood that led France to make mistake after mistake in World War I, culminating in the massive deaths at Verdun. Revenge for 1870, the inability to tactically retreat, and the belief that elan could defeat machine guns led to more deaths than was necessary, or so argues this author.