Silent Night, Stanley Weintraub
Silent Night, Stanley Weintraub
1 Rating(s)
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Silent Night
The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce

Author: Stanley Weintraub

Narrator: Edward Holland

Unabridged: 5 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/27/2003


Synopsis

In the early months of World War I, on Christmas Eve, men on both sides of the trenches laid down their arms and joined in a spontaneous celebration. Despite orders to continue shooting, the unofficial truce spread across the front lines. Even the participants found what they were doing incredible: Germans placed candlelit Christmas trees on trench parapets, warring soldiers sang carols, and men on both sides shared food parcels from home. They climbed from the trenches to meet in "No Man's Land" where they buried the dead, exchanged gifts, ate and drank together, and even played soccer.

Throughout his narrative, Stanley Weintraub uses the stories of the men who were there, as well as their letters and diaries, to illuminate the fragile truce and bring to life this extraordinary moment in time.

About The Author

Stanley Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Pennsylvania State University, and the author of numerous histories and biographies, including Silent Night (available from Plume).


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lawyer

Silent Night in No Man's Land: Christmas, 1914 Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before I dreamed the world had all agreed To put an end to war I dreamed I saw a mighty room The room was filled with men And the paper they were signing said They'd never fight again And when the papers all......more

Goodreads review by Sue

The Christmas Truce has lingered strikingly in the memory even when its details have disappeared into myth. What began as "the Wonderful Day" to its participants remains a potent stimulus to the creative memory. Christmas 1914 evokes the stubborn humanity within us, and suggests an unrealized pote......more

Goodreads review by Paul

“Silent Night,” with its slow, gentle, minor-key delivery of its Christmas message, may be the most melancholy of all the songs associated with the holiday season. Accordingly, the song provides a suitable title for historian Stanley Weintraub’s 2001 book Silent Night, as the book tells a once-overl......more

Goodreads review by Chris

My first exposure to the WWI Christmas Truce was when I saw the foreign movie Noel many years ago. The concept of an unsanctioned wartime truce between soldiers in the midst of a brutal world war was something I was immediately infatuated by, for how often does one hear of such things happening toda......more


Quotes

"Weintraub has brought an obscure and bizarre incident to life with a flair that gives the reader a detailed glimpse of a unique Christmas story."The Seattle Times

"Deeply moving."—The Boston Globe

"Reveals [Weintraub's] skill as a researcher and deftness as a narrator."—Publishers Weekly

"Weintraub does an excellent job of preserving for posterity this remarkable wartime truce."—The New American