Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Ernst Juenger
Creator: Michael Hofmann
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $8.45
You Save: $6.55 (44%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  63 reviews
Sales Rank: 53238
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0142437905
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.4144092
EAN: 9780142437902
ASIN: 0142437905
Publication Date: May 4, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism, Storm of Steel illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, seen through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. Young, tough, patriotic, but also disturbingly self-aware, Juenger exulted in the Great War, which he saw not just as a great national conflict butmore importantlyas a unique personal struggle. Leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart, Juenger kept testing himself, braced for the death that will mark his failure. Published shortly after the wars end, Storm of Steel was a worldwide bestseller and can now be rediscovered through Michael Hofmanns brilliant new translation.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 58 more reviews...
 World War I -- From The Trenches As It Was September 15, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
For most people who only know World War I from their high school days when they did a book review on "All Quiet On The Western Front" this book is required reading. Against the spate of anti-war books by those who saw limited service and little combat, Ernst Juenger's book is truly authentic. He fought for his nation to win, and it was not until the Ludendorf offensive that he participated in during the Spring of 1918 was stopped (in his opinion, due to German artillery blocking the infantry's advance), that the author came to feel that Germany might lose the war. After all, at that time Romania, Serbia and Russia had been defeated, Italy was in disarray, the French relatively inactive, and the Americans had not yet arrived in strength. And it must be remembered that Germany always possessed inferior numbers compared to the allies on the Western front.
The author has been condemned and marginalized in the US for his unabashed nationalism by the American leftist academic and political elite to the point that he is almost unknown in the English-speaking world. Juenger did his duty willingly and with enthusiam for four long years in combat on the Western front during World War I, and his refusal to condemn war has made him anathema to the Western literary world. Even though Juenger was not a Nazi and resisted Hitler's siren songs, his love for his country was enough to have his work censored through silence.
The reader should carefully read the review by the Washington Post writer given above. Tellingly he states his personal viewpoint, "Like many people, I have absolutely no love for the martial spirit, detest all forms of nationalism, and feel queasy at the sight of blood." Hopefully the ER personnel attending to him following an accident will be able to function while seeing blood, but I guess "God Bless America" is out, and the Post reviewer will avoid service in the American Army with whatever excuse. This is the contemporary attitude of the liberal elite and media, formed over the last sixty years of leftist propaganda in our schools, universities, and on television. Juenger would be appalled.
This translation by Hofmann is better than the ones I have read previously, but German speakers are advised to read his works in their original German. Hofmann effectively translates the German idioms that have stumped other translators and the Introduction should be read carefully to understand why a faithful translation is important. This volume is based on Juenger's revised edition (Juenger revised his book at least eight times), most probably the latest one from 1961.
This book was written from Juenger's diary originally in 1920, is not fiction, and is the only extensive work from World War I from a long-serving combat soldier in the war. That alone makes it important, but that it is well-written and describes four major battles from the viewpoint of the soldier in the trenches makes it uniquely invaluable. That it remains almost unknown in the US is a tragedy and due exclusively to the powers that abhor the military and nationalism at any level -- even that for the United States.
The details I leave to the many other reviewers who have more than adequately covered the tragedy and frightfulness of war. Juenger retains a sense of humor throughout, and even suggests that war is the most pronounced experience that a man can undergo. For the doubters, please read Glenn Gray's "The Warriors." In many respects, World War I was probably the most terrifying war in history for the individual infantryman. He lived a terrible existence in mud and squalor, subject to death at any moment from the ever-present artillery fire, and his survival depended more on chance than on his own skills. To some degree that changed in World War II and in subsequent wars where individual skills played an increasingly larger part in determining a soldier's survival.
In short, BUY & READ this book. Don't accept passively what you are told to believe by the media, your teachers and professors. Juenger is well worth the read and you may actually learn something about lives of soldiers in World War I. Juenger is certainly an Alpha-male type, but his true story is as important as those written by anti-war fiction writers and those with political agendas.
 Graphic Memoir of WWI July 23, 2008
STORM OF STEEL offers WWI from a German soldier's point of view, but Erich Maria Remarque it ain't. All told, author Ernst Junger was shot multiple times, yet would live not only to write this book (and many others) but to celebrate his 103rd birthday (attended by an unusually patient Grim Reaper-in-Waiting).
On the penultimate page of this book, he writes: "Leaving out trifles such as ricochets and grazes, I was hit at least fourteen times, these being five bullets, two shell splinters, one shrapnel ball, four hand-grenade splinters and two bullet splinters, which, with entry and exit wounds, left me an even twenty scars." Like George Washington (who also was shot at, over, under, and through), someone seemed to be watching over Junger.
Fans of war literature will relish this book. Junger takes the reader through the trenches of Flanders, the Somme, Cambrai, Langemarck, and many other WWI locales. His narrative is straightforward and blunt, including many details on soldiers' deaths (German AND British) with a full compliment of gory details. He seldom editorializes or pontificates, and even acts as if gas attacks are normal (well, they were -- then). The narrative has that "rubbernecker" effect going for it. The appalling body counts almost carry you forward, despite your disbelief at the complete waste of humanity. Meanwhile, Junger riffs on tests of manhood and the rush (along with the fear) that is war.
Junger writes: "In war you learn your lessons, and they stay learned, but the tuition fees are high." Understatement. With examples of both mercy and bloody resolve, Junger's behavior will continue to astonish readers as they read his detailed account. Unencumbered by any attempts at high art or literary flair, STORM OF STEEL will put you there, giving you a real taste of how fleeting life was for these young men. The War had no winner and only one loser -- humanity itself -- only Junger chooses not to state as much. Instead, he trusts in his readers. Recommended for fans of history, WWI, and war literature. If you've read other works in the WWI canon, this is a worthy addition.
All Noisy on the Western Front June 11, 2008
a straight-forward soldier's book written by a man who went through the whole war in the front lines - and survived! pleasingly free of the political whining and hand-wringing the saturates so many of the accounts written by 'our side' about this bloody and pointless conflict. the narrative touches on all aspects of the military experience of a member of the p.b.i. (poor bloody infantry) and can serve for those on any side or army in this meat grinder of a war. i've been reading a couple of books a week on military history for about 50 years and rate this book in the top three personal accounts - a truly excellent work.
Harrowing and unforgettable May 6, 2008
This is an amazing book to read. Junger was a stormtrooper--the German soldiers who lead the first wave into the trenches--for something like four years. It seems extraordinary that anyone could have survived such a holocaust, let alone four years of it. There is very little in the way of emotional expression in this book, or personal or political observation. Junger devoted his writing to the material details of the battle. This book takes you right into it with unforgettable detail--the acrid smoke, the seemingly ceaseless rain of artillery. More of Jungers men seem to be felled by German artillery than the opposition. Junger describes a scene in which a battery is destroyed and a single horse survives, fleeing across the desolate landscape, "a white ghostly figure." From the very first minutes on the line, artillery remained a constant danger for these men. The book describes harrowing scenes of shootouts with snipers and machine gunners, shooting men at pointblank range with pistols. One scene describes a group of British cornered in a trench. Junger's men throw grenades into the trench. After each blast, helmets, rags of body parts, and blood flies up in the air. His unit moves forward to the edge of the smoking trench to finish the British off, only to be mowed down by British rifle fire as they prepare to fire. This is combat at its most intense! An ungorgettable read that takes you into the eye of the storm of steel. Definitely, good reading. You won't be able to put it down.
BUY THIS BOOK! April 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
At first I thought this book was going to turn out to be one of those books that were written at a different time that just couldnt have a style to keep readers this day and age interested. I was wrong. Junger has a style all his own and you will feel has if you are the one standing in his boots through all the epic battles and hardships. You can almost see the mortor shells landing around him with all the carnage that goes with them. You will feel happy when he triumphs, and sad when men are there one minute and gone forever the next. This book will only get better the further you get into and the ending I will admit put a tear to my eye, this man deserved everything he earned and more. His final battle is one you will not be able to put down. I found my self reading paragraphs two and even three times over again convincing my self that my eyes were not playing tricks on me. This book is a must have for anyone who is even mildly interested in combat novels.
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