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4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
I started the book (shamefully) knowing almost nothing about The Great War. Whatever I've learned in school was overshadowed by the Second World War and the Holocaust. I have hardly read anything since on the topic.
I knew the member countries of each side . The official trigger, and the length of war. That's about it.
Like I said, shameful.
Reading this book, I learned so much about what I didn't know, and even more about what I didn't know that I didn't know.
Aside from the actually trajectory of the war, its battles and players, the author brilliantly adds a "background" section before each chapter. The topics were all related to the war, even if sometimes only marginally so, but fascinating details I otherwise wouldn't have known, or thought related.
I usually hate books that take me two months to get through.
This is an exception.
I highly recommend it.
I knew the member countries of each side . The official trigger, and the length of war. That's about it.
Like I said, shameful.
Reading this book, I learned so much about what I didn't know, and even more about what I didn't know that I didn't know.
Aside from the actually trajectory of the war, its battles and players, the author brilliantly adds a "background" section before each chapter. The topics were all related to the war, even if sometimes only marginally so, but fascinating details I otherwise wouldn't have known, or thought related.
I usually hate books that take me two months to get through.
This is an exception.
I highly recommend it.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Very good, and well written, overview of the first world war. Would have liked to see more details on the actual battles, but then the book would be too long. I'll have to, gladly, read about them separately. A+. Highly recommended.
Pourtalès too repeated himself: the consequences would be grave.
"I have no other reply to give you," said Sazonov.
Pourtalès took out more papers. "In that case, sir, I am instructed by my government to hand you this note." In his hands he held two messages, both of them declarations of war. One was for use if Russia gave no answer to the ultimatum, the other a reply to a negative answer. In his distress and confusion he pressed both on Sazonov and burst into tears.
Or so Sazonov wrote years later in his memoirs. Pourtalès's recollection was that Sazonov wept first. Whatever the sequence, apparently both men cried. They embraced, then pulled apart and began to exchange accusations.
"This was a criminal act of yours," Sazonov said. "The curses of the nations will be upon you."
"We were defending our honor."
"Your honor was not involved."
Finally they parted forever, Sazonov helping the distraught Pourtalès to the door.
Well, it took me almost two years to finish this book, but I am damn glad I did. WWI is sadly glossed over in many history courses, but Meyer does a wonderful job filling in the details from a big picture perspective, without allowing the reader to get lost in the weeds.
I can't recommend this book enough, whether you're a fan of military history, European history, or WWI.
I can't recommend this book enough, whether you're a fan of military history, European history, or WWI.
If you've ever been confused by the complex mess that was WWI, or just don't know anything about it and would like to, look no further than this book. It is an incredibly readable survey history that makes all the complexities easy to understand without simplifying them. While it is mainly a military history, the book's frequent asides cover all kinds of other details from the role of women in the war to conflicts between German generals to who that Franz Ferdinand guy actually was. I highly recommend it.
Hands down, this is the best single-volume history of World War I.
Solid overview of World War I. Unlike "The World Remade," a killer book about everything Woodrow Wilson got wrong in dragging the US into the war, there's no groundbreaking insights here, though. And, there's minor errors here and there.
Rounded up from 3.5 for the sake of the "background" sections.
I've read several books about the outbreak of World War I, and even more that explain how the repercussions of the conflict and overly harsh peace treaty led to World War II, but my knowledge is patchy regarding details of the war itself. I had a vague understanding of the trench warfare stalemate, but A World Undone opened my eyes to the senseless slaughter this war truly became. Repeated disasters at Ypres, Verdun, Gallipoli, along the Somme, horrible fighting on the Eastern front, and fierce smaller battles in Arabia combined to kill just under 10 million combatants. I had heard this before, but reading a chronological narrative of the fighting taught some important points:
- WWI was much less about territorial gains and more about attrition. Who would run out of men to throw into the grinder last? The Russians had a seemingly never-ending supply of men to contribute, but were taken out by the Russian revolution. France and England were conscripting men up to 50 by the end, and were grabbing new 18 year-olds on their birthdays. Women took over nearly every job on the home front, and by 1918 were filling auxiliary positions in every army.
- While the entry of the USA and its fresh new forces in the war made a huge difference in convincing Germany it could not win, American forces only engaged in battle during the last 6 months of the war. Russia, Britain and France fought for 3 1/2 years before we got involved. I don't think I had ever considered just how late our soldiers came to battle.
- A slaughter at the level of WWI would never happen today, because the people wouldn't stand for it. Reading this book made it so clear to me that the leaders of nations, and especially many of their generals (who came from aristocratic backgrounds), did not put much value on the lives of the common soldiers. I was shocked at how lightly they made decisions to throw whole regiments of men against barbed wire and concrete entrenched machine guns, losing 20, 30, and 40 thousand men in single days of combat.
- WWI was the last major war that was primarily limited to combatants. While many citizens died of starvation due to war's deprivation, bombs were dropped primarily on the battlefield, rather than on cities and areas of production.
- Technology made this war so much more deadly than those before. The machine gun, tank, and airplane all played roles they hadn't before, and forced generals to change their mindsets on strategy. Unfortunately, these generals were slow to learn, and in the first part of the war still sent rows of men in bayonet charges that couldn't hope to survive against the new guns. Even at the end many of the "old guard" refused to let go of old ideas of ceaseless attack and front-line focused defense, causing so many unnecessary deaths.
- Germany was forced to surrender not because they lost the most battles, but because they used up all their men, guns, and ammunition, and their partners, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, had already lost the ability to keep fighting. Germany actually could have made a case for victory at many points up through 1917.
- World War I took Europe from a place of prosperity to a completely destroyed economy. Every nation involved borrowed heavily to pay for ever more arms and armaments, not having any idea how they would repay those loans. In the end this is why such heavy reparations were demanded from Germany; Britain and France hoped to make their enemy pay for the war. But Germany was even more broken than the victors, and had nothing to give. Europe literally spent every cent it had built up through more than a century of growth from the Industrial Revolution destroying itself.
I really liked the way Meyer presented his information, with two parallel tracks: chapters narrating the progress of the war alternating with chapters giving background information on important people, social movements, technology, and other factors that played into historical developments. I personally found the background chapters more interesting, but people with interest in battles and troops would probably prefer the narrative account. All sections were very well done.
4.5 stars for covering an amazing amount of material in 600 pages. Most treatments of the full war in the past have been multi-volume works, which is more than I want to read. I think Meyer finds the perfect balance between exhaustive treatment and over-summarization.
- WWI was much less about territorial gains and more about attrition. Who would run out of men to throw into the grinder last? The Russians had a seemingly never-ending supply of men to contribute, but were taken out by the Russian revolution. France and England were conscripting men up to 50 by the end, and were grabbing new 18 year-olds on their birthdays. Women took over nearly every job on the home front, and by 1918 were filling auxiliary positions in every army.
- While the entry of the USA and its fresh new forces in the war made a huge difference in convincing Germany it could not win, American forces only engaged in battle during the last 6 months of the war. Russia, Britain and France fought for 3 1/2 years before we got involved. I don't think I had ever considered just how late our soldiers came to battle.
- A slaughter at the level of WWI would never happen today, because the people wouldn't stand for it. Reading this book made it so clear to me that the leaders of nations, and especially many of their generals (who came from aristocratic backgrounds), did not put much value on the lives of the common soldiers. I was shocked at how lightly they made decisions to throw whole regiments of men against barbed wire and concrete entrenched machine guns, losing 20, 30, and 40 thousand men in single days of combat.
- WWI was the last major war that was primarily limited to combatants. While many citizens died of starvation due to war's deprivation, bombs were dropped primarily on the battlefield, rather than on cities and areas of production.
- Technology made this war so much more deadly than those before. The machine gun, tank, and airplane all played roles they hadn't before, and forced generals to change their mindsets on strategy. Unfortunately, these generals were slow to learn, and in the first part of the war still sent rows of men in bayonet charges that couldn't hope to survive against the new guns. Even at the end many of the "old guard" refused to let go of old ideas of ceaseless attack and front-line focused defense, causing so many unnecessary deaths.
- Germany was forced to surrender not because they lost the most battles, but because they used up all their men, guns, and ammunition, and their partners, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, had already lost the ability to keep fighting. Germany actually could have made a case for victory at many points up through 1917.
- World War I took Europe from a place of prosperity to a completely destroyed economy. Every nation involved borrowed heavily to pay for ever more arms and armaments, not having any idea how they would repay those loans. In the end this is why such heavy reparations were demanded from Germany; Britain and France hoped to make their enemy pay for the war. But Germany was even more broken than the victors, and had nothing to give. Europe literally spent every cent it had built up through more than a century of growth from the Industrial Revolution destroying itself.
I really liked the way Meyer presented his information, with two parallel tracks: chapters narrating the progress of the war alternating with chapters giving background information on important people, social movements, technology, and other factors that played into historical developments. I personally found the background chapters more interesting, but people with interest in battles and troops would probably prefer the narrative account. All sections were very well done.
4.5 stars for covering an amazing amount of material in 600 pages. Most treatments of the full war in the past have been multi-volume works, which is more than I want to read. I think Meyer finds the perfect balance between exhaustive treatment and over-summarization.