Product Description

This double biography of the joint leaders of Germany's General Staff provides an account of the Great War from the German point of view and sheds light on the nation's disastrous defeat as a result of expanded military egos unchecked by civil authority. Even when Hindenburg led his troops home after the 1918 armistice, he declared that the German army had been, not beaten, but destroyed - the origin of the "stab in the back" concept that became Hitler's rallying cry. Both Hindenburg and Ludendorff rejected all overtures for a compromise peace, and in their different ways led their country into total war and ruin. Robert Asprey's other books include "War in the Shadows", "Semper Fidelis: A History of the Marines in World War II" and "Frederick the Great: The Magnificent Enigma".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1082771 in Books
• Published on: 1994-11-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Customer Reviews

A really terrific piece of work..
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which I found to easily move from the minutiae of great detail to the broad brush strokes of sometimes crushing characterisation. Difficult to read in long sittings due to its intensity, would be my only criticism - this is a read on holiday, not read on the train type book. It is interesting to contrast the characterisation with David Sinclair's "Hall of Mirrors" (more respectful), Robert Massie's "Dreadnought" (more sympathetic on a human level) or John Keegan's "First World War" (less cutting, more "objective"). The impression given is that the two are war-mongers. Whether they had more blood on their hands than the politicians of the age is of course a good question. This book suggests they were much more than misguided patriots, but authority usurpers who wanted nothing less than to takeover the reich. I suspect the pursuit of the war led them to demand (and take) more power, rather than that being their central objective. I would be very interesting in other's opinions of the harshness of the charges laid against the two.

Authority Usurpers?
I read, and agreed, with "Reader from London's" review of this book.

More recently I have read and reviewed, Roger Chickering's "Imperial Germany and the Great War 1914-1918" which very much supports the contention that Ludendorff was to all intents and purposes a sort of military dictator, until his nerve cracked after the failures of 1918 offensives.

The meeting with the Kaiser on 29th September 1918 gave Ludendorff the opportunity, as both Chickering and Asprey show, to support a consitutional monarchy under which the Social Democrats would take the blame for defeat.

The seeds of Adolf Hitler's rise to power were born on that day.