La Place de la Concorde Suisse: Amazon.ca: Books

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.

First Sentence
The Swiss have not fought a war for nearly five hundred years, and are determined to know how so as not to. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

9 Reviews

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A faithful rendition of the Swiss military tradition, Oct 26 2002

By

Michael Wells Glueck "EditAndPublishYourBook.com" (Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: La Place de la Concorde Suisse (Paperback)

In German, La Place de la Concorde Suisse is rendered Concordiaplatz, and it is visible from the Jungfraujoch, which means "virgin saddle," and which is reached via funicular railway from Interlaken. Depending upon the season, one can either hike or ski from the Jungfraujoch down the Aletsch glacier to Concordiaplatz and view the redoubt containing the sunken armory described in McPhee's book. There may even be a visible contingent of soldiers guarding and maintaining it, just as their brethren maintain the explosives stashed in the outerworks of all key bridges in the country, or inspect the radar installations on key peaks such as the Weissflühgipfel above Davos. As one who lived and worked in Switzerland for eight years, and whose published memoir, Living Among The Swiss, is listed on this website, I can attest to the accuracy of McPhee's account. Most of my business colleagues were required to take annual two- or three-week military leaves, and one sees soldiers everywhere: on trains, in ski resorts, along low and vulnerable mountain passes such as those north of Sargans, and, increasingly, at airports. Their efficiency of organization has been admired not only by the Israelis, who imitated it, but also by the Russian defense minister, and McPhee accurately captures their esprit de corps - in the process expanding, as usual, the reader's vocabulary.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and enlightening, Jan 21 2002

By

Andrew S. Rogers (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: La Place De La Concorde Suisse (Hardcover)

When I first read this book (and for a long time thereafter), I had no idea who John McPhee was. Although I enjoyed his idiosyncratic and engaging style, it was the subject matter of this brief study that interested me most. I've read a couple of McPhee's other books since, and enjoyed those, too. But this one is my favorite, because it's still the subject, rather than the author, that intrigues me most.

It's been said that Switzerland is not a country with an army, but rather an army with a country. McPhee shows us how the militia-army concept -- the every-citizen-as-soldier idea that has been emulated by Israel, for example -- plays out in the lives of Swiss citizens like Luc Massy, McPhee's host on a series of military training exercises. The exercises are more like camping trips for the soldiers, but McPhee shows that behind the breezy attitudes, national defense is a deadly serious business for the Swiss nation and people.

Switzerland's pastoral countryside may never look quite the same again, once you realize that nearly every bridge has been fitted with explosives, the faster to destroy them in case of invasion. That any snow-capped peak may hide artillery emplacements or entire squadrons of fighter jets. That a silent glacier (like the title Place de la Concorde Suisse) may become a front-line airfield at the first sign of trouble. And that, of course, most every farmhouse contains firearms and men and women trained to use them.

Since this book was first published in 1983, there has been a spate of books about the Swiss in World War Two. Coming as it did before that storm, 'La Place de la Concorde Suisse' is a useful way to get a feeling for the Swiss militia system, uncolored (pro or con) by the strong feelings that arose a decade or so later. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a look at Switzerland's unique national defense system in practice.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

5.0 out of 5 stars My first time, Sep 26 2000

By

Scott Snyder (Danbury, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: La Place de la Concorde Suisse (Paperback)

Reading a McPhee book that is. It was loaned to me by someone since he knows my wife is Swiss. LPDLCS was a great book of his to start with and I think is the quintessential McPhee book. His subject matter has always puzzled me. He goes to Iceland to document their fight against the lava flows, to Greece to learn more about Ophiolite sequences, and to the Alaskan bush to see how the last great "Pioneers" live. Of course in LPDLCS he travels with member of the French-Swiss military on their yearly excursions, but you learn so much more about things you never thought could be interesting. His books are as eccentric as they are fascinating. I have not yet read a bad book from this guy.

La Place De La Concorde Suisse is where several glaciers meet in the Swiss Alps. What a bizzare, but appropriate, title. Read this book.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 9 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 21 reviews 4.5 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars As Well Arranged as a Swiss Army Knife
This book (digressing from "Assembling California" and the omnibuses which include "Pieces of a Frame") finds its own unsuspecting terrain in a study of the... Read more

Published on Sep 14 2000 by jack schaaf

4.0 out of 5 stars As Well Arranged as a Swiss Army Knife
This book -diverging from the writer's "Assembling California" or the omnibus which include "Pieces of a Frame"), finds its own unsuspecting terrain and... Read more