What is the author's perspective in the book, Dead Wake?

“Dead Wake” by Erik Larson is the non-fiction story of the sinking of the Lusitania, a British passenger ocean liner, in 1915 during the early years of the European war which would ultimately evolve into World War I. Erik Larson has been a staff writer for Time Magazine and for the Wall Street Journal. He is also the author of “In the Garden of the Beasts,” a book about the first and only American ambassador to Nazi Germany and his and his family’s experience living in Nazi Germany during the lead up to World War II. He has written a number of other non-fiction works. It is obvious from his works that Larson has an ardent interest in military and world history.

Larson cites many source references that he used in writing, “Dead Wake.” Since the Lusitania disaster happened a century ago, there are probably no survivors who can tell the story of the tragedy first-hand. Larson writes from a fact-based perspective about the incident and the conditions and events that led up to it. He tells the back story of some of the passengers and crew who were on the ship. He tells the stories of the Lusitania’s captain, the U-boat commander who ordered the assault on the ship, a depressed and distracted US president and an eager and duplicitous British Admiralty. He describes the complicated geo-political atmosphere that surrounded the incident. Larson juxtaposes the American policy of neutrality in the early stages of the war against the goals of the British Admiralty, led by a young Winston Churchill that was eager to bring the Americans into the conflict.

There has been much debate and speculation over the last century about the sinking of the Lusitania. Some felt that the “magnificent ship” was purposely left unprotected by the Admiralty to draw America into the war. A secret unit working under British intelligence called simply Room 40 withheld important information from the captain of the Lusitania, information that might have averted the tragedy. Oddly, there was no escort for the ship when it entered waters that were considered part of the war zone. The Germans who had been increasingly aggressive leading up to the sinking of the grand ocean liner, became even more so after. They wanted to engage the Americans seemingly as much as the British did. The only country not interested in involving America in the war was America itself.

The story is told from the voice of history. The mystique that surrounded the tragedy remains and is not resolved in “Dead Wake” although every aspect of the incident is thoroughly covered. If there is a bias at all in the book, it is in favor of the British and American alliance, although it was a relationship that had been tainted by dishonesty and secrecy on the part of the Brits. No one will ever know all the answers to the questions that arose with the Lusitania disaster but it is endlessly fascinating to explore the possibilities.