'...embellished with a fine selection of quotations from eyewitnesses...' Fred Donnelly The New Brunswick Reader

'...so well written that it's easy to overlook the research and knowledge required.' 'Gilbert's talent is in telling the whole story. The reader gains an appreciation not just of an event, but of the characters who participated or influenced that event, their motivations, and the repercussions of their actions.' 'Gilbert moves adroitly from one part of the world to another, keeping personalities carefully outlined against the broader picture.' Linda Turk Chronicle-Journal, Thunder Bay, Ontario

'This is history stripped to its essentials, shorn of fads, and celebrities and hoopla , and devoted instead to what was of consequence.' The New York Times

'One's attention rarely lags throughout this masterful chronicle.' Parade

'Impressive in its sheer ambition and historical detail.' Foreign Affairs