5/5

This was the 7th book in a row dealing with the First World War that I have read this fall, so I think my grasp on the historiography is as good as it will ever be. This newly translated work is absolutely the best text I’ve taken in on the First World War and paints a very different picture than the anglophile tradition that exists in English language WW1 history. The author’s careful consideration of the German perspectives at the time is enlightening to the confusion guiding the nation, and he is not afraid to use hindsight to evaluate the decision making of both the German Empire and their Entente enemies. This aids in a significant intervention in the rather dormant world of WW1 historiography and gives the entire work a level of cohesion many books on this subject lack.

The teetering on a Knife’s Edge that drove the 19th Century world to it’s destruction paints a pretty dismal picture of the decision makers of the times and their 0-sum view of the world. The conclusion floats the possibility that perhaps a 1916 armistice, and the implied message that no war of this scale could be ‘won’ will rattle around my head for the foreseeable future. It begs the real question, did the Entente actually win by any measure of the 1914 war aims?