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Book Review of Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
maura853 avatar reviewed on + 542 more book reviews


Excellent: Larson does for the Lusitania and its tragic end what Walter Lord did in the 1950s for Titanic: provide detail and context. Larson has the additional advantage that, while the doom of the Titanic and its passengers was more cock-up that conspiracy, the Lusitania was almost certainly the victim of the machinations of British politicians like Winston Churchill to get the neutral and isolationist USA into World War I. If, like me, you feel that the history we were taught in school bears little resemblance to the complications and nuances of how it actually might have happened -- this is the book for you.

My one complaint (and I read this on my kindle, so this may only apply to that edition): where are the pictures? Larson's descriptions of doomed and saved passengers and crew are very vivid, but I would have liked to see for myself.