The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919

In May 1915, Italy declared war on the Habsburg Empire. The result was one of the most hopeless and senseless wars of modern times. Nearly 750,000 Italians and half as many Austro-Hungarian troops were killed. To maintain discipline in the face of desperation and low morale, General Luigi Cadorna restored the Roman practice of decimation, executing random members of units that retreated or rebelled. With great skill and pathos, Mark Thompson relates the saga of the Italian front. A work of epic scale, The White War does justice to one of the most remarkable untold stories of the First World War.

About the Author :
Mark Thompson holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from Cambridge. The author of Forging War and A Paper House, he lives in Oxford, England.

Review :
The Weekly Standard "[A] study as pioneering as it is brilliant... Drawing on an impressive array of British, Italian, and Austrian sources, including fascinating interviews with survivors, Thompson re-creates the Italo-Austrian conflict in all its facets... The White War is the work of a bright young historian proving his mettle." Dallas Morning News "Thompson?s book is a comprehensive work following the causes, culture and combat of Italy?s war against Austria-Hungary and Germany... It?s worthwhile reading and remembering, particularly when trying to comprehend what price victory." Robert Fox, Evening Standard "Brilliant... It is the first general history of the serial incompetence and brutality of the war in north-eastern Italy between 1915 and 1918, which makes it exceptional enough. In its elegant sweep of cultural and political as well as martial themes, it stands alone: it is one of the outstanding history books of the year." Christopher Duggan, Times Literary Supplement "Mark Thompson?s wonderfully rich and poignant study, beautifully written and based on a detailed first-hand knowledge of the terrain in question as well as an impressive array of published Italian sources shows graphically why the events of 1915-18 had such a searing effect on the country?s national psyche." Max Hastings, New York Review of Books "Mark Thompson, a young British writer, can claim a notable achievement with his narrative history of Italy?s World War I experience. With authority, sympathy, and unusual literary skill, he illuminates an aspect of the conflict about which some of us feel embarrassed to have known so little. The battlefield saga is sufficiently fascinating, but eclipsed by the portrait of Italy?s social and cultural experience within which the author sets it... Thompson?s book gives a fascinating, indeed brilliant, portrait of a society immolated by its own delusions."br> The Economist (Best Books of the Year) "A startling indictment of the Italian state?s conduct during the first world war, which shows how Italy?s nationalist dream of expansion would turn into the Fascist nightmare." John McCourt, Irish Times "Brilliant... In presenting this conflict with such uncompromising focus and detail, Thompson has successfully accomplished a necessarily uncomfortable act of remembrance... It should be hailed as the best account yet of what Hemingway described as 'the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery? of the Great War and of the experiences of the vast majority of Italian soldiers who, in Giovanni Comisso?s words, had little or no knowledge of 'what they had done, or why.?"