ring of steel,Alexander Watson

-About this book

This book is the first modern history to narrate the Great War from the perspectives of the two major Central Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary. It seeks to understand the conflict through their statesmen’s eyes. Above all, however, it is the story of their peoples.

Whether civilians standing in the food queues of Vienna and Berlin, soldiers embroiled in the bloody fighting on the Somme or at the Brusilov offensive, or sailors engaged in tense underwater warfare, their fears, desires and ordeals lie at the heart of this account. 

The book’s third theme is the tragic societal fragmentation caused by the First World War, a break-up which not only preceded and precipitated political collapse, but persisted even after state order had been resurrected in central Europe.

This book’s central argument is that popular consent was indispensable in fighting the twentieth century’s first ‘total war’. It recounts how the German and Austro-Hungarian peoples supported, tolerated or submitted to the conflict, and how participation changed them and their societies

Second, the book explains how extreme and escalating violence during 1914–18 radicalized German and Austro-Hungarian war aims and actions, and it explores the consequences of this radicalization for those societies and their war efforts.

-Contents

Introduction

1. Decisions for War

2. Mobilizing the People

3. War of Illusions

4. The War of Defence

5. Encirclement

6. Security for All Time

7. Crisis at the Front

8. Deprivation

9. Remobilization

10. U-Boats

11. Dangerous Ideas

12. The Bread Peace

13. Collapse

Epilogue

Bibliography

 -Caractéristiques

Date de parution : 01/07/2014

Editeur :Allen Lane

ISBN : 978-1-84614-221-5

EAN : 9781846142215

Poids : 1.36 Kg

Dimensions :  16,2 cm × 24,0 cm × 5,2 cm