Good things come in threes...or is that bad things? Not sure.
But for World War I books, good things certainly come in threes with this trio of excellent books, two of them just out this year and the other something that has lurked on my wish list for a long time.
Like many Americans, I had a serious deficit in my understanding of the First World War and its implications for the 20th century.
Sadly, I don't think America did enough observe the 2014-2018 centennial of this major event, being too wrapped up in ourselves to take a deep look at history. Certainly Europe commemorated this event better than we did.
But in many ways World War I was, in my view and the view of many historians, the defining event of the 20th century. In its destructive wake four major Empires were destroyed, communism enveloped Russia, the Middle East was completely remade, and millions of soldiers and civilians died. I think you can draw a straight line from the tragedy of 1914 to communism, fascism, the current troubles with the Middle East, and the beginning of the decline of Western European civilization.
So why are these books so fascinating to me?
Let's start with The Road Less Travelled. This is truly a great book for readers with some knowledge of the events and characters of World War I but let me sum up why I consumed this book like a bag of Fritos.
In late 1915/early 1916, the major powers of Europe, particularly Britain and Germany KNEW the war could not be won without something major happening. The war was at a stalemate, with thousands of young men being slaughtered for nothing. England was literally broke (you think bailouts and creative government financing are a 21st century thing...nah), Germany was starving, and France was spent. For a tantalizing 9 months there was a real chance that some kind of "peace without victory" could have been made. All eyes turned to the U.S. and Woodrow Wilson. It is really amazing and sad to see how many real opportunities were missed because of ineptitude, politics, and plain old miscommunication.
But peace was actually possible if only a few more men had seized the opportunity. Think about it...no Russian Revolution, no breakup of the German, Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires...the Ottoman might have gone anyway, but who knows. No one would have heard of Hitler, the Holocaust, Stalin, Osama. The possibilities are endless.
The second book The Western Front, is the first of a trilogy (this seems to be the hot trend in histories...Rick Atkinson is an excellent example) covering World War I. While I am still reading it, I have already achieved a better understanding of the events in France and Belgium and the absolute tactical and strategic nightmare of trench warfare. The author has done a marvelous job of combining narrative history with personal recollections to cover a great deal of ground in an eminently understandable manner. This may become the standard work on the Great War.
I haven't gotten too deeply into The Russian Army in the Great War, but I am expecting it to completely fill a gap on the Eastern Front of World War I. A forgotten campaign in a forgotten war. I think it's important to understand how Russia collapsed and became a breeding ground for revolution and the eventual rise of communism. I think we have a tendency in the West to forget that both World War I and World War II had a significant amount of fighting done in Eastern Europe, the consequences of which still reverberates today.
So that's some new books (more or less) on World War I..the Great War...the War to End All Wars...only not so much.
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