On the first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1st, 1916, British military forces suffered the worst day of casualties in British history. There were more than 57,000 casualties—including more than 19,000 soldiers killed—most of them in the first hour. French and German losses were not as high but were equally horrific. While driving across France, author John Strider Nation saw a sign—Ligne du Front—“Front Line.” Uncertain and curious, he stopped to find out to what it was referring. His one-day detour to the Somme turned into a month-long sojourn. In this book, Nation shares his explorations and reflections. Wandering the trenches, talking with guides and visitors, watching “the gleaners” collect unburied and long-buried ammunition, and visiting the cemeteries and final resting places of soldiers named and unnamed, Nation considers the tragedy that was believed to be the “war to end all wars.” It is a powerful reflection about one battle and what it means to be human in a world of war.
About the Author:
John Strider Nation grew up in the cowboy country of the Red River Valley of southern Oklahoma, watching the cow ponies and windmills of the Old West turn into the pickup trucks and oil derricks of the New West. A natural nomad, Nation has traveled extensively, living for twenty years on a classic 40-foot wooden schooner that he built, and backpacking across Europe and North Africa.
He is the eldest son of award-winning poet, Winona Morris Nation, who almost forgotten now, in the 1950s won many national poetry awards, being published in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, and in 1959, winning the National Collegiate Poetry Contest. Nation holds a degree in anthropology and English from the University of Oklahoma, and is a licensed pilot.
