At the
Edge of the
World by Jean-Vincent Blanchard documents the first
century of the French
Foreign Legion, from its founding in the 1830's under a French
king to its use
as a force helping the French Republic expand throughout North
Africa in the
years after World War I.
It circles largely around Louis Herbert Gonzalve Lyautey, who
rose through
the ranks of the French Army to command several missions for the Foreign Legion
in various French colonial military campaigns in the late 19
th
and
early 20
th centuries.
A scholarly work, Blanchard spares little
detail in the
inner workings of the French Foreign Legion and how it's uniquely made up of both French citizens and foreigners who are
willing to serve and fight for France in foreign lands. The
book as a whole, while solid
and well-grounded from a historical standpoint, did not
captivate me as much as other historical military books of the past have. It comes across
quite wonky and
scholarly, lacking the ability to captivate this reader at
several points.
Blanchard also focuses much of the book on
the French
Foreign Legion’s impact in Morocco and Southeast Asia; this comes at the expense of
covering its contributions and impact on World War I. The
author’s focus was
clearly on French colonialism and the French Foreign Legion’s
contribution to
those efforts; however, skipping over a major global conflict
seems inappropriate
in telling the full story of this outfit of French fighters.
MY RATING - 3