Milton Public Library

As they were

eng

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non fiction

As they were

electronic resource

dictionaries

AS THEY WERE By LT. COL. A. PETER DEWEY With the war ended, too many people have already forgotten the dark and uncertain days France knew in 1939-40. But Lieutenant-Colonel Dewey did not forget. He was not the sort of American who could live through such a period and fail to remember. In the simplicity of his book, he has shaped the terror and dissolution of a great people and country. Other writers have told of the corruption in the highest levels of French politics and society; other writers have spoken of the courage that far outweighed the treachery. But none has been able to catch the fevered hopelessness, the panic of those two years. As a Paris correspondent, Dewey was in a position to observe and analyze, and gasp in amazement, at the events which led to the brutal transformation of a great power into a defeated crushed nation. But he has wisely stayed away from the cut-and-dried analyses of political maneuvers and results. He has concentrated upon these hectic days as they affected the individual. His interest was on a human level-the small personal tragedies as well as the great, the death of a child along a refugee-clogged road as well as the decimation of a regiment. AS THEY WERE is not only the story of the early days of this late war as it has never been told before; it is also the story of a sensitive, wise young man who managed to combine an almost delicate culture and a classic intellect with practical ability. Peter Dewey is now dead-killed in action, while serving as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the OSS. He died as courageously as he lived, his physical daring surpassed only by his moral courage. Of his book, Arthur Krock has said: "This is one of the most absorbing accounts of what happened in France in 1939 and 1940 that I have seen-deftly woven into the story of a gallant personal experience are the tragic elements of the debacle."

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