The Amazon History Book of the Year 2013 is a magisterial chronicle
of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914 as the continent shifted
from the glamour of the Edwardian era to the tragedy of total war.
In 1914, Europe plunged into the 20th century's first terrible act
of self-immolation - what was then called The Great War. On the eve
of its centenary, Max Hastings seeks to explain both how the
conflict came about and what befell millions of men and women
during the first months of strife. He finds the evidence
overwhelming, that Austria and Germany must accept principal blame
for the outbreak. While what followed was a vast tragedy, he argues
passionately against the 'poets' view', that the war was not worth
winning. It was vital to the freedom of Europe, he says, that the
Kaiser's Germany should be defeated. His narrative of the early
battles will astonish those whose images of the war are simply of
mud, wire, trenches and steel helmets. Hastings describes how the
French Army marched into action amid virgin rural landscapes, in
uniforms of red and blue, led by mounted officers, with flags
flying and bands playing. The bloodiest day of the entire Western
war fell on 22 August 1914, when the French lost 27,000 dead. Four
days later, at Le Cateau the British fought an extraordinary action
against the oncoming Germans, one of the last of its kind in
history. In October, at terrible cost they held the allied line
against massive German assaults in the first battle of Ypres.The
author also describes the brutal struggles in Serbia, East Prussia
and Galicia, where by Christmas the Germans, Austrians, Russians
and Serbs had inflicted on each other three million casualties.
This book offers answers to the huge and fascinating question 'what
happened to Europe in 1914?', through Max Hastings's accustomed
blend of top-down and bottom-up accounts from a multitude of
statesmen and generals, peasants, housewives and private soldiers
of seven nations. His narrative pricks myths and offers some
striking and controversial judgements. For a host of readers
gripped by the author's last international best-seller 'All Hell
Let Loose', this will seem a worthy successor.
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