Product Description

The Great War toppled four empires, cost the world 24 million dead, and sowed some of the seeds of another worldwide conflagration 20 years later. Yet, until now, there has been no comprehensive treatment of how Germany and Austria-Hungary - two of the key belligerents - conducted the war and what defeat meant to them.

How did the Hohenzollern and Habsburg empires conceive of and conduct 'total war'? What impact did the prolonged fighting have on their societies? Drawing on his own archival research over the past decade, Holger Herwig analyses why Vienna opted for war in 1914 and why Berlin took the calculated risk to back that decision.

The war plans and military campaigns on both Eastern and Western fronts are examined in detail and key battles, some of the bloodiest and most wasteful in military history, are narrated and analysed.

On the home front, the mobilization of the civilian populations behind the war effort had profound social consequences. The militarization of the key war-related industries led to an industrial women's labour force emerging in both countries, deeply affecting the role of women in Germanic society.

''The great seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century', as American statesman George F Kennan described the war, has had no shortage of accounts seen chiefly from Allied perspectives. In using Vienna and Berlin as his vantage points, Herwig has comprehensively shown for the first time the other side of that prodigiously wasteful conflict.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #671216 in Books
• Published on: 1996-11-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

History
...the most thorough and readable one-volume history of the war so far available.

Review
Full of fascinating detail, strongly argued, and lucidly written, Herwig's study is certain to force a re-evaluation of the origins and course of World War One. (Choice )

a comprehensive study...we have needed for some time...one cannot but admire the breathtaking scope of [Herwig's] scholarship. A brilliant work by one of the real giants in the field. An absolute must read for anyone with even a passing interest in the subject. (New York Military Affairs Symposium )

In making extensive use of achive material in Germany and Austria... [Herwig] is able to destroy effectively the myth of a well-run German war machine. (The Times Literary Supplement )

...the most thorough and readable one-volume history of the war so far available. (History )

From the Author
Book Prize Winner 1999
I am delighted to report that the Western Front Association chose this as their 1999 Book Prize Winner.

Customer Reviews

A good book but I feel a strange taste of partiality
This book is indeed a good book, it contains a lot of interesting information, especially about Austria-Hungary in WWI, which is a very little treated subject in the History literature. From this point of view, it deserves more than a look.

However, it is not my favorite. It *excessively* and *unfairly* generalizes the so called incompetence, blindness or even harshness of the Central Powers governments. It does not relativize. He completely criticizes them as if they were his own military staff or personal enemy! Have you noticed the ambiguity of my feelings after reading the book?

I've been interested in WWI for a long time and I read many books and collected a large number of documents about this period. Little by little, I was led to think that every government in Europe had wanted it this one, and I do say, *every* government, consciously or not, whether it was german, french, russian or austro-hungarian. They all share the responsability, certainly not in equal parts, that's a fact; they all share it, though. Besides, they had well trained their public opinion: as many testimonies tell us, never were the crowds so eager to slaughter their "neighbours". And concerning the "global incompetence theme" which I disagree with, I will admit it a few seconds, get ironic and tell you this: don't be hypocritical, whatever your side is; if you feel bitter towards Germany because its "incompetence" made them lose the war, you should rejoice since thanks to it we have won it at their place (at what price!) and if you think they deserved the "war guilty" clauses in the treaties, just remember that these treaties indirectly opened a large way to regimes like Fascism or Nazism. Diplomacy gains nothing by humiliation (well, it depends on the wished purpose).

Don't misunderstand me, I don't aim to defend Germany or Austria-Hungary at any price. I know who lighted the fatal spark first - but I also know some of their opponents were very pleased they did it.

Finally, when I closed this book, I wondered if I had read a Mea Culpa or, au contraire, an anti german pamphlet, as if the author felt concerned much beyond his duty of Historian. Mmm... And that's a pity because, as I firstly said, there's a bunch of interesting and first choice information. Was it sufficient to win the Western Front Association Book Price??? I doubt it.

I'm sorry to be so frank, Mr Helwig, you maybe convinced some of your readers but you did not convince me; but then again, that's my opinion, just my opinion.

A ground breaking book on the topic.
The author has given a very fine one volume account of the direction of the war on the part od the Central Powers. A previous reviewer disagrees with the author's observation on the allies and the invasion of Greece after the unsuccessful campaign at Gollipoli. In fact the French had plans to enter Belgium, Joffre pleaded his case before Mr. Poincare. The French Government did not want to jepardoize British support in the coming conflict. Moral considerations had little to do with their choosing not to exercise that option. Mr. Herwig has done a great service for the English Language reader. He is somewhat harsh with the Austro-Hungarians. They chose not to spend large sums on a large army or navy.Dan

An excellent book
The First World War destroyed the old imperial system that had governed Europe. Prior to the war central Europe was dominated by the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Imperial Russia. As a result of the war these countries were torn apart by social revolution with Communism taking control in Russia and Fascism in Germany.

Herwig in his stunning book explains why. The stunning incompetence of all of the participants in this conflict were breathtaking. The military incompetence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was such that they had lost close to one million men in the first year of the war. However conventional histories fail to look at the way countries managed their economies. Neither Germany nor Austro-Hungary were able to feed their populations during the war or even turned their mind to it.

The war years were a time when the normal people in those counties slowly starved to death, suffering from a range of diseases brought on by poor nutrition to witness their husbands and children taken away to die in huge numbers at the front.

The book is a stunning inditement of all of the great powers of the time. The First World War is the first cause of a lot which has gone wrong with this century.