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Vimy Ridge and Arras: The Spring 1917 Offensive in Panoramas presents an interesting look at Canada’s most famous battle.

Published by the Imperial War Museum in the United Kingdom, the book places the First World War Battle of Vimy Ridge in the context of the larger Battle of Arras, largely neglected in most Canadian writings.

Reading about Vimy from the British perspective, without the national fervour that is generally taken for granted in the Canadian context, readers might mistake it for an extremely successful battle, rather than the birth of a nation.

As if to emphasize the lack of awareness about Vimy in Europe, the original British publication was simply titled Arras, with Vimy Ridge taking the top billing for the Canadian edition.

The strength of the book, though, is the spectacular panoramas of the battlefields, which have been supplemented with present-day images. They are definitely worth a look, especially for the interested military historian, as they express the vastness of the wasteland that was the Western Front.