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kerrikins's review
4.0
If you're interested in learning more about WWI but find yourself bogged down in trying to understand the complexity of it all, or if you find yourself struggling with the books that you find, etc.... Then this might be just what you're looking for!
I may or may not have been taught about WWI in school, I'm honestly not sure if I was or not. At any rate, whatever I did know didn't really stay with me, as about the only thing I'd absorbed was that Canada had fought in the war, who had won, and November the 11th.
So if you're looking for an interesting but also compelling take on the events that is accessible for someone who is new to the whole thing, I would say this is a good place to start. It's definitely long, but it's like Carlin is telling you a story, and it's very listenable. (Is that a word? Well, it is now!)
I may or may not have been taught about WWI in school, I'm honestly not sure if I was or not. At any rate, whatever I did know didn't really stay with me, as about the only thing I'd absorbed was that Canada had fought in the war, who had won, and November the 11th.
So if you're looking for an interesting but also compelling take on the events that is accessible for someone who is new to the whole thing, I would say this is a good place to start. It's definitely long, but it's like Carlin is telling you a story, and it's very listenable. (Is that a word? Well, it is now!)
maxmischa83's review
5.0
Geniale podcast van Dan Carlin. Een inspiratiebron om de eigen lessen anders te benaderen...
"Blueprint for Armageddon is not just about gratuitously horrifying the audience. It’s not a day of talking only about dismemberment and chlorine gas attacks. Carlin presents the geopolitics, the history behind the history, the accounts of the generals, the politicians, and the common man on the ground into a coherent, well-paced, and incredibly detailed experience that will leave any listener more educated on the war, and hopefully a whole lot wiser."
https://observer.com/2016/12/this-podcast-tells-the-stories-high-school-history-class-forgot/
"The anatomy of the battles of Verdun and the Somme was the same. A battlefield had been selected. Around this battlefield walls were built—double, triple, quadruple—of enormous cannon. Behind these railways were constructed to feed them, and mountains of shells were built up. All this was the work of months. Thus the battlefield was completely encircled by thousands of guns of all sizes, and a wide oval space prepared in their midst. Through this awful arena all the divisions of each army, battered ceaselessly by the enveloping artillery, were made to pass in succession, as if they were the teeth of interlocking cogwheels grinding each other.
For month after month the ceaseless cannonade continued at its utmost intensity, and month after month the gallant divisions of heroic human beings were torn to pieces in this terrible rotation. Then came the winter, pouring down rain from the sky to clog the feet of men, and drawing veils of mist before the hawk-eyes of their artillery. The arena, as used to happen in the Coliseum in those miniature Roman days, was flooded with water. A vast sea of ensanguined mud, churned by thousands of vehicles, by hundreds of thousands of men and millions of shells, replaced the blasted dust. Still the struggle continued. Still the remorseless wheels revolved. Still the auditorium of artillery roared. At last the legs of men could no longer move; they wallowed and floundered helplessly in the slime. Their food, their ammunition lagged behind them along the smashed and choked roadways."
Winston Churchill over de vreselijke slagen bij de Somme en Verdun.
"Blueprint for Armageddon is not just about gratuitously horrifying the audience. It’s not a day of talking only about dismemberment and chlorine gas attacks. Carlin presents the geopolitics, the history behind the history, the accounts of the generals, the politicians, and the common man on the ground into a coherent, well-paced, and incredibly detailed experience that will leave any listener more educated on the war, and hopefully a whole lot wiser."
https://observer.com/2016/12/this-podcast-tells-the-stories-high-school-history-class-forgot/
"The anatomy of the battles of Verdun and the Somme was the same. A battlefield had been selected. Around this battlefield walls were built—double, triple, quadruple—of enormous cannon. Behind these railways were constructed to feed them, and mountains of shells were built up. All this was the work of months. Thus the battlefield was completely encircled by thousands of guns of all sizes, and a wide oval space prepared in their midst. Through this awful arena all the divisions of each army, battered ceaselessly by the enveloping artillery, were made to pass in succession, as if they were the teeth of interlocking cogwheels grinding each other.
For month after month the ceaseless cannonade continued at its utmost intensity, and month after month the gallant divisions of heroic human beings were torn to pieces in this terrible rotation. Then came the winter, pouring down rain from the sky to clog the feet of men, and drawing veils of mist before the hawk-eyes of their artillery. The arena, as used to happen in the Coliseum in those miniature Roman days, was flooded with water. A vast sea of ensanguined mud, churned by thousands of vehicles, by hundreds of thousands of men and millions of shells, replaced the blasted dust. Still the struggle continued. Still the remorseless wheels revolved. Still the auditorium of artillery roared. At last the legs of men could no longer move; they wallowed and floundered helplessly in the slime. Their food, their ammunition lagged behind them along the smashed and choked roadways."
Winston Churchill over de vreselijke slagen bij de Somme en Verdun.
tyheronthorn's review
5.0
okay, blueprint for armageddon isn’t technically a book. but if it was, it’d be as hefty as any of the other history books out there—a solid 22 hour chronicle of how the first world war plays out. look, i’m making my way through adam hoschchild’s king leopold’s ghost on audiobook and it’s six hours shorter.
i’m by no means a scholar of the first world war, but the conflict has held my interest as one of, if not the quintessential turning point of history. this podcast pulls no punches in showing how modernity was borne in blood, mud, and gunfire, pulling from first hand accounts and historians alike.
what carlin excels at—and why hardcore history resonates such with its listeners—is that dan carlin makes history into an emotional, heartrending story. he puts you into the shoes of the soldiers and statesmen who fought in the first world war. it’s a 22 hour podcast, and i was hooked on every minute of it.
i’m by no means a scholar of the first world war, but the conflict has held my interest as one of, if not the quintessential turning point of history. this podcast pulls no punches in showing how modernity was borne in blood, mud, and gunfire, pulling from first hand accounts and historians alike.
what carlin excels at—and why hardcore history resonates such with its listeners—is that dan carlin makes history into an emotional, heartrending story. he puts you into the shoes of the soldiers and statesmen who fought in the first world war. it’s a 22 hour podcast, and i was hooked on every minute of it.
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