An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List

597. The First World War: The Massacre of the Innocents (Part 4)

September 03, 2025

Description

What happened at the crucial, bloody, Battle of Ypres in October 1914? How did the battle come about? Why did the Germans and the British fight each other so brutally and for so long to take...
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Books Referenced

The Canterbury Tales

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

Context:

Mentioned when discussing the history of Ypres as a medieval cloth town - 'It's mentioned in the Canterbury Tales, Tom'

Catastrophe

Author: Max Hastings

Context:

Referenced multiple times as a source for WWI accounts, including quoting a soldier named Paul Hubb from Württemberg and telling the story of the German 143rd Infantry advancing down the Menin Road

1914: The Year the World Ended

Author: Paul Ham

Context:

Described as 'an Australian writer called Paul Ham. He wrote a brilliant book about 1914' - quoted describing the Flanders landscape of gentle hills, fields of tobacco and beetroot with hedgerows