Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Ground Held: A Reckoning with the Debt of the Western Front

The Ground Held: A Reckoning with the Debt of the Western Front

Van Houte, Cornelis

Paperback

Series: The Ground Held Trilogy, Book 1

PhilosophyWorld War I

ISBN13: 9798251816082
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Mar 12 2026
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.54
Height: 0.38 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
You lost your name so that I could write mine. You stayed in the mud so that I could drive toward the sun.

What do we owe the millions who never left the trenches of the Western Front? For Dr. Cornelis van Houte, a man of law and logic, the answer isn't found in history books, but in the silent, geometric precision of the cemeteries that scar the landscape of Europe.

The Ground Held: A Reckoning with the Debt of the Western Front is not a traditional history of the Great War. It is a profound, meditative journey of a witness. From the haunting height of the Thiepval Memorial to the quiet ripples of the Meuse, Van Houte navigates the physical and emotional geography of sacrifice.

Armed with a camera and a legal mind trained for accuracy, the author attempts to bridge the distance between the named and the unnamed. He explores the concept of The Debt-the heavy, invisible inheritance carried by every generation that has followed the Armistice.

In this lyrical and deeply personal reconstruction, Van Houte explores:

  • The Geometry of Grief: How the architecture of remembrance attempts to contain the uncontainable loss of 72,195 souls at the Somme.
  • The Protocol of Peace: A lawyer's search for a structural, lasting peace that goes beyond the absence of war.
  • The Modern Witness: A reflection on how we carry the past while driving toward the future, through the lens of a journey across Flanders and France.
Compelling, philosophical, and hauntingly beautiful, The Ground Held is an essential read for anyone who has ever stood before a war memorial and felt the weight of a silence that speaks volumes. It is a final accounting-a discharge of a debt that can never truly be repaid, but must always be acknowledged.

Cornelis van Houte, Doctor of Laws, is a international lawyer and military analyst.

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