Erik Larson

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

The last crossing of the Lusitania

Dead Wake

Kath

Larson's narration in this historical nonfiction was phenomenal. More often than not, victims of tragedies are presented to us in numbers and remnants of their humanity die with them, but not with Erik Larson. Through careful telling of the events that led up to one of the greatest maritime disasters of all time, inevitably making the U.S. enter WW1, Dead Wake resurfaced (no pun intended) the humanity of once the fastest British passenger ship in history and the disastrous events that unfurled afterwards.

Jayme Cochrane

First time reading an Erik Larson book and wow. The details. So many details. Such small details that paint a lush picture of the time, the place, the atmosphere, the mood, the emotions. 

Too many beautiful sentences to keep track of. The backstories of so, so many passengers perfectly woven into the main storyline. 

And somehow, a thorough history of the build up and major events of early WWI is seamlessly told as well. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

1st May 1915: the luxury ocean liner Lusitania sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool. Her passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone and its submarines were bringing terror to the Atlantic. But the Lusitania’s captain, William Thomas Turner, had faith in the gentlemanly terms of warfare that had, for a century, kept civilian ships safe from attack. He also knew that his ship was the fastest then in service and could outrun any threat. Germany was, however, intent on changing the rules, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. For this would be the ill-fated Lusitania’s final crossing . . .

The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Lamia Hajani

A well-written blow by blow account of the sinking of the Lusitania. I found myself wholly into every page. The novelistic writing style is so well-done. Erik Larson’s histories are outstanding.

Mary Rose Luksha

Like most people educated in the American system, the sinking of the Lusitania was touched on briefly in my World History class sophomore year in high school, and cited as a major determining factor for the U.S. entering WWI. 

So of course, when I found out Erik Larson's new book was about the Lusitania, I was thrilled to read it and let the history come alive because he is one of the greatest living non-fiction authors and I love everything he writes. Legit, no exaggerations. 

Unfortunately, as you can tell by my 3 star rating, this wasn't entirely the case. In truth I'd give it 3.5 if I could. I found the beginning very scattered - there were so many narratives he was trying to weave together it was hard for me to get invested, let alone keep track of his cast of historical figures. As a result, the first 100 pages or so took me FOREVER. 

However, after that, Larson did a phenomenal job of mounting tension between the U-Boat and the Lusitania. You knew what was coming, all these small decisions seemed so ominous and Larson wrote a truly page-turning thriller. And his actual account of the ship going down was heart-breaking. By then I came to love some of the eccentric passengers, and reading their account of survival or perishment was harrowing. But Larson wrote it with respect, in pared down prose that did the tragedy justice.

So the majority of the book was very good, IF the first 100 pages don't make you fall asleep first.

Amy Maddess

Melody Izard

Every single fact that can possibly be related to this tragedy. A great writer, but some things got tedious.

Karen Shimek

I was under the impression that the sinking of the Lusitania was the basis for our entry into World War I. However, I learned the US entered the war almost 2 years later. Those who are not history buffs may find it dry. I was tempted to abandon it but I'm glad I did not.

Wynn Netherland

Larson shatters the perception that the Lusitania was a mere footnote to America's entry to WWI. If Titanic was the story of hubris vs. floating ice, this tale of disaster at sea is one of cold-blooded, state-sponsored murder. Though the sinking would eventually tip the balance of power in the worldwide conflagration and reshape history, Dead Wake is ultimately the telling of scores of interconnected human stories of luck, misfortune, life, death, and survival.

Jeni Enjaian

I found this book absolutely fascinating. For as long as I can remember, I have known that the German U-Boat sinking of the Lusitania contributed to the eventual entry of the United States into the First World War. Yet I knew almost nothing of the story of the ship on its fateful journey. I love how Larson alternated viewpoints and included what he could from the viewpoint of the U-Boat captain. This book tells the whole story in an engaging manner that leads one to contemplate the ramifications of warfare and the decisions that men make during that time.

Anna Adams

Heartbreaking. I couldn't put it down. I love the detail, the research, the real people. But it was heartbreaking. And there still seem to be mysteries.

Chelsea White

I never knew the full story of the Lusitania, so it was incredibly interesting to have it laid out like this book did it. Erik Larson always does an excellent job of taking real material and weaving a narrative that is easy to follow and intriguing. This book is no different. If you’ve liked his previous books you’ll definitely like this one!

Ben Nathan

Very good. Overall, better than Devil and the White City. Though this one relies much more on accounts and letters than secondary sources. I think the flow of this book was quite nice. I may just have to keep reading his stuff if it all hits home like this one did.

Katie

This was a great book. I loved how Larson sets up the story; he doesn't just give you the historical facts but also dives into the more mundane, such as: Who exactly were the passengers on the Lusitania? What kind of people were they? There were so many anecdotes laced within this story that don't have great historical impact, but gave me a good giggle, and made it so much easier for me to relax and enjoy the story.
At points it almost felt like a horror story. Like you know how it's going to end, and it's going to end badly, but How exactly? and When?
There were some parts which were a little snooze-worthy for me (I'm not big on WW1/WW2 history) but overall it was a fascinating read. My father is a huge history buff and it's the kind of book I'd want to buy for him.

The Last Crossing Of The Lusitania

Aaron Lewis

True to form, Erik Larson brings history vividly to life through his masterful use of archival materials to cover the events that preceded (and followed) both the infamous sinking and America's entrance into World War I. Like the ship itself, Dead Wake plows forward at a speedy, page-turning clip—jumping from the decks of the Lusitania and her nemesis, U-20, to the halls of the Wilson White House and back rooms of British naval intelligence. Fascinating, cinematic and richly detailed.

I.m. ruzz

The thing about history is it's the mother of all creation when it comes to raw data points. Excised from context you could see each individual thing that happens (and I mean every single thing) as a data point if you wanted to. When reconstructing a historical narrative though, we'd expect there to be far fewer data points from which to work, given only so many were recorded. If you happen to pick a topic that involves the rich, or powerful or bureaucratic you'll find many more data points than say, the life of a single farmer in rural saskatchewan. 

So given that, it seems the function of the author in this case is to dig for points that matter and separate the noise in hopes of bringing you a story worth reading rather than a facebook type timeline with a every fact he happened upon. 

On that front our esteemed author thinks it matters to the story that what the temperature was in Washington D.C. when speaking of President Wilson, or what flowers may have been in bloom and a myriad of other interesting tidbits I'm sure he was thrilled to find digging through musty archives but as a reader who can only read so many books in one given lifetime I'm not impressed with the time wasting exercise. 

I normally give a book 100 pages to pull me in and if it hasn't I quit it. Ruthlessly. Because nothing even remotely related to the point of the story had yet happened I decided to give him another 25 pages which is fully a third of the book and still nothing truly meaningful has been shared. I quit it. 

I can't have that time back but you can if you haven't yet purchased this book. 

If, like me, you're on a sea related kick I'd recommend you go grab a copy of Nathaniel Philbrick's In The Heart of The Sea. He is a master of the separating of pointless data and salient facts and manages to bring his characters to life rather than simply describing what they wore, what their families wrote about them or the contents of their steamer trunks.

Les Reynolds

A fascinating story of a key event in World War II. Lots of details about the German U-boats, the sinking of the Lusitania, and the subsequent quieting of the story by the British military. A bit to much minutiae about the passengers on the boat made it drag at times.

Bryan Alexander

Dead Wake is an engrossing read, a compelling narrative that's hard to stop reading. Larson demonstrates once more his ability to select and present excellent historical details, tied together in appealing plot lines.

However, it's very disappointing as a World War I book. Perhaps I'm asking too much, but given the huge attention focused on WWI during the centenary period and the renaissance in its scholarship, I found Dead Wake unfortunately narrow.

Essentially, the book focuses precisely on what it claims to address: the last voyage of the Lusitania. We read many details of the ship's construction and operations, the actions and some characters of the crew, and above all the lives (and deaths) of many, many passengers. This is fascinating and ultimately poignant, although one can't help feeling echoes of James Cameron's (massively overrated) Titanic movie. I was especially interested in the U-Boat details, plus the story of Room 40, a British cryptanalysis outfit.

Some details seemed superfluous. I could have had less of Woodrow Wilson's love life, for example.

In Dead Wake's acknowledgements section Larson admits to not knowing much about World War I. "Am I an expert on World War I? No." (Kindle location 5185) While that's a nice bit of authorial self-abnegation, it also seems to be true, and reveals a weakness in the book. Let me outline some reasons why. (NB: I'm not an expert in the field, but a very interested reader, with some training in history and more in literary criticism with a historical perspective.)

For example,President Wilson ran for president in 1916 under a pledge to keep America out of the war, but in 1917 took the country right in. This contradiction is one historians often work through, and would be apparent to many readers new to the topic, but Larson skips it.

Also on the American side, the book quietly undermines itself when it fails to make a case for the Lusitania's role in taking American into WWI. When Larson describes Wilson's decision-making, he emphasizes the Zimmermann telegram, and notes the liner doesn't even appear in the president's war message to Congress. This slightly weakens the book, taking down its importance a peg. We also hear nothing of the critical role played by American financial investment in the Allied cause (here's an intro).

From the German side, we receive a few flashes of description: a brief sketch of the war leadership's debates about using U-boats, a note about the German people's pride in sinking a major British vessel. But we don't get more than that. 

On the British side, we don't get much sense of the Impact of U-boats on that island nation and empire. That is, Larson looks into naval strategy and some sense of national pride, but not on the lives of people The German command hoped to starve out the British before Britain starved out the Germans. This vastly horrible facet of total war is almost completely invisible in Larson's account, which actually undermines the book's power. Bringing total war into play would raise the stakes for this one pair of voyages.

Larson sets aside one conspiracy theory too quickly. This is the idea that the British allowed the Lusitania's sinking in order to encourage the US to join the war. Dead Wake argues that the event was simply the result of multiple forces coming together, but never addresses the British scheme option seriously. I'm not a Lusitania fanatic, so I don't know how seriously people take it - Larson should have addressed this.

The climax of the book takes place off the coast of Ireland, and in that country is where much of the final action takes place. It seems odd to me that Larson doesn't mention Irish unrest, or that the Easter Rising comes less than a year after the Lusitania dies. Historically this is obvious; as a nonfiction book, you'd think the author would want to mention such a juicy bit of detail, especially for American audiences.

Strangest of all is the lack of discussion about the Lusitania's cargo, as she was carrying (among other things) munitions for war. It's easy to see killing the ship as a war crime, because of the loss of civilian life and property, but Germans at the time justified the act by pointing out the amount of ammunition, guns, etc, in the ship's hold. Larson notes this deadly cargo as part of the manifest, but not its role in subsequent debates.

So if I'm so unhappy with the way Dead Wake treats WWI, why would I recommend the book? Because Larson does a fine job with tracing the journeys of two ships, liner and submarine. He makes the machines and people fascinating. Even knowing the outcome, the reader is likely to be drawn in, wondering how things will turn out. That's successful nonfiction, and worth the ride.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

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