American Front (the Great War, Book One)

by Harry Turtledove

Book Overview

"This is state-of-the-art alternate history, nothing less."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

When the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, the United States and the Confederate States of America, bitter enemies for five decades, entered the fray on opposite sides: the United States aligned with the newly strong Germany, while the Confederacy joined forces with their longtime allies, Britain and France. But it soon became clear...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345405609
• ISBN13: 9780345405609
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Mustard Gas on the Mississippi

It's most unquiet on the Western Front... The Great War fought on American soil. Harry Turtledove has written a spectacular work of alternate history.Great War: American Front is the first of three books in a trilogy, but you really must read How Few Remain beforehand. Go ahead, I'll wait. How Few Remain (HFR) gives the backstory: Confederate States defeat the USA in 1862 by not losing critical battle plans, and in 1881 the USA itches for a rematch, only to lose again. By 1911 the USA and CSA have been seperate countries for 50 years, with plenty of resentment. The USA, having been defeated twice, is not the economic powerhouse it became in our timeline.Tensions mount between the two countries and their allies. CSA is allied with England and France, USA with Germany. The European struggle is offstage, as American Front covers the war from multiple viewpoints in North America. British Canada is invaded by the USA and becomes Occupied territory; one family secretly resists, another slowly accepts their new overlords. Utah, still a US territory because the government is still fighting the Mormons, who are being supplied with weapons from the CSA. And in the CSA, Marxism is being taught... among the ex-slaves, and the USA is running weapons to them! General Custer is observed through the eyes of his long-suffering aide, take a ride on a CSA submarine, observe enemy intelligence in a Washington DC coffeehouse. Multiple viewpoints, numerous agendas, plenty of intrigue, and laughably bad sex scenes! What more could anyone want? And if you enjoy this book, there are two more in the Great War series, followed by three more in the American Empire series, leading up to the forthcoming American World War II!

Great story

this was a great story, after having read How Few Remain, its nice to see the US not getting completely destroyed. as for their being too many characters, well, i think there are too many civilian characters. there are way to many civilians involved in this, esspecially the two occupied canadians, and the multiple black revolutionaries. the one thing that is needed is more information on whats going on elsewhere in the world/war. i think that the US officer in the War dept. is going to start providing that in book two. all in all, it is a great book, with a better amount of military characters, and US characters then How Few Remain. and the addition of navy characters is great.

Excellant Alternate History.

Harry Turtledove is probably the acknowledged master of alternate history fiction today. His "Guns of the South" is a classic of the genre and more recently he has turned his attention towards an interesting alternate time-line: what would the First World War have been like if the South had won the Civil War? The answer is "The Great War: American Front", as exciting and interesting a book as I have ever read.In Turtledove's scenario, the South won the Civil War, then emerged victorious in the Second Mexican War, which saw a humbled US lose to the combined power of the CS and England. As the Great War begins, the United States is allied with Germany (and presumably Austria-Hungary, though this is not mentioned) while the Confederate States are allied with the triple powers- England, France and Russia (with Japan thrown in for good measure). Historically, the addition of the US to the German/Austrian side would have dramatically tilted the balance of power against the triple powers. Not only would they have been deprived of American armies which contributed to the winning of the war against Germany, but England must now also contend with the American invasion of Canada and the presence of the American navy on the high seas. Indeed, it was American soldiers who helped to save the beleaguered armies of England and France in the pivotal days of 1918, when the German army came perilously close to capturing Paris and perhaps winning the war.The events of "The Great War: American Front" are quite plausible as well. Slaves in the CS, whose position is quite like that of the serfs of Russia in 1914, take to reading Marx. The US must quell a Mormon uprising in Utah. Poison gas is used to break the stalemate in Kentucky . . . all events that are quite plausible and dramatically told in Turtledove's excellent prose. The First World War was the great upheavel of Europe's old political and social order. The effect in America might have been similar. The reader must give Turtledove kudos for taking the might-have-beens of the story and making them feel like they did actually happen.As good as Turtledove's work is, "The Great War: American Front" has some weaknesses. For one, there are far too many characters. Do we really need two different perspectives on the U.S. occupation of Canada? Do we really need so many looks at the war in the trenches? Sometimes characters tend to blend together, or they take time away from another whose story you may want to follow more closely. Also, this reader would have enjoyed longer looks at the naval aspects of this war. Historically, Theodore Roosevelt's interest in naval affairs was such to suggest that the U.S. Navy in 1914 would have been a formidable fighting force, quite the equal of the Royal Navy. The peeks at the naval dimensions of the war Turtledove grants his readers are too slight for my taste.This reader would also enjoy a longer look at the political implications of the war

An excellent story . . .

I liked it it a lot! The premise of the book was sound, and the writing was very well done. I liked how Turtledove both focused on individuals while conveying larger events in the war. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down.

Excellent, but a work in progress

It becomes obvious towards the end of The Great War: American Front, that all the loose ends are not going to be tied up. I am pleased, because it whets my appetite for the succeeding volumes in this alternate history. Turtledove is not creating a utopia here, this world in which the South defeated the North in the 1860s and again in the 1880s is a much poorer and more dangerous world than our own. Nor is this a story of good vs evil. Both sides commit brutalities as a matter of course, and there is no high flown rhetoric about saving democracy or ending war forever. This World War I is openly about aggression and power. I await the succeeding volumes breathlessly.