With British Guns in Italy: A Tribute to Italian Achievement

Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Baron, 1887-1962Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
420K words
Chapters
42

Tags

English Originals World HistoryMilitary Military ObservationItalian CampaignWorld War I MemoirBattlefield ReportPopular NarrativeSocial ObservationCross-Cultural WitnessAllied Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.With British Guns in Italy: A Tribute to Italian Achievement by DaltonAuthor: Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Baron, 1887-1962,Language: English, Class: D501: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: World War I (1914-1918), Release Date: Nov 1, 2003

Editor's review

This is a First World War memoir by Hugh Dalton. The subtitle states its purpose: using the experiences of British artillery in Italy as a thread, it pays tribute to Italy's wartime efforts. The public-domain electronic edition from Project Gutenberg makes this relatively obscure First World War document more accessible. Its value lies mainly in historical material and perspective: it records one side of the joint operations of British and Italian forces and reflects how a British author of the time viewed Italy's contribution. Readers can observe the wartime imagination of alliance and the rhetoric of praise. The writing is documentary, covering marches, positions, and observations, with a fairly high density of information. Read it with historical awareness, distinguishing personal observations from the overall course of the war; it should not be taken as a comprehensive history of the First World War. It is suitable for thematic reading by readers interested in First World War history, military memoirs, and Anglo-Italian relations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Before reading, learn the general outline of the Italian front in the First World War to better situate the observations in the book.
  2. Mark passages involving Anglo-Italian cooperation as you read and sort out the author's specific arguments for praising Italy.
  3. Read personal observations alongside works of military history, noting the memoir's standpoint and selectivity.
  4. You may read the chapters related to the subtitle first, then return to the operational details to reduce the reading burden.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42

FAQ

Is this book a comprehensive history of the First World War? No. It is closer to military observations from a personal perspective and tribute writing, focusing on the experiences of British artillery in Italy and the evaluation of Italy's wartime contribution. If you need a general framework, read it alongside a comprehensive history of the First World War.
What historical background should I know before reading? It is advisable first to grasp the basic timeline of the First World War, the general course of Italy's entry into the war, and the basic situation of the Anglo-Italian alliance. With this background, the marches, positions, and cooperation narratives in the book will be easier to situate, and the author's tone of praise easier to judge.
How difficult is the original English edition to read? It is documentary English prose with long sentences and military terminology and place names, more difficult than ordinary popular reading. Intermediate to advanced English reading ability is recommended, along with maps and a dictionary; if you only want to understand the content, you may first consult relevant Chinese military history materials for support.

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About the author

Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Baron, 1887-1962 Author · British · 1887–1962

Hugh Dalton, Baron Dalton (1887–1962), was a British Labour politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and wrote works on public finance. One of his works is held here: With British Guns in Italy: A Tribute to Italian Achievement. As the title suggests, the book follows British military experience in Italy and pays tribute to Italian achievement, combining wartime observation with a spirit of homage. Publicly available information on the details of his life and the full range of his writings is limited, so a more specific account is difficult. On the whole, his writing is closely tied to his political and financial background; his works are few and concentrate on public finance and wartime experience, offering some reference value for understanding a twentieth-century British Labour politician and wartime writing.