I just finished the audio book of Barbara Tuckman’s The Guns of August, a book I have read pieces of but never had the pleasure of reading start to finish. While I enjoyed the book immensely, it was not necessarily the definitive World War I text that many herald it as. In fact, I think if I were to recommend a book on World War I to a friend who was not very familiar with the conflict I would refer them to Ernst Junger’s A Storm of Steel or Erich Maria Remarque‘s All Quiet on the Western Front.
I say this, because Tuckman’s book is excellent, but only for those who have a baseline understanding of the conflict, and its context in 19th and 20th century European history. Tuckman tells the story of 1914 from the position of the heads of state, commanders in chief, and royal families. While there is some description of public opinion, and soldiers on the ground, I don’t feel that the book accurately communicates what the experience of World War I was like.
The Great War was a paradigm shattering event. The long 19th Century died during the Battle of the Frontiers, alongside hundreds of thousands of European soldiers. The Guns of August effectively communicates what happened among high command of the belligerent powers, as both the Schlieffen-Moltke Plan, and the French Plan XVII collapsed in on themselves, demonstrating that 1914 would not be like 1871. However, The Guns of August does not explore the sense of extreme nationalism that compelled an entire generation of Europeans to join the conflict, and the damage to national identities that began in 1914.
World War I’s effect on military strategy, the global balance of power, and the 19th century colonial system cannot be understated. However, more significant in my mind was the affect of the war on European’s understanding of their national identity. We refer to the veterans of the Great War as the ‘Lost Generation’ for a reason. A continent wide paradigm, the zeitgeist of the 19th century was dealt a crippling blow at the Battle of the Frontiers. While Tuckman’s book gives an excellent narrative of the factors that drove the world to war, and the experience of the decision makers in the first month of the war, I wouldn’t recommend it to someone with a budding interest in the conflict.
World War I was so much more than just the battles, and causality figures. It gave birth to world you and I still live in, one that would be unrecognizable to someone who lived in the 19th century. The memoirs of its soldiers’ tell us so much more about that paradigm shift than any recollection of the elite decision makers possibly could.