Cataclysm : The First World War As Political Tragedy

In August 1915, British generals on the western front found themselves reluctantly preparing for the upcoming Battle of Loos at the behest of their French allies. Far from sharing his generals' pessimism, Lord Kitchener, the British secretary of state for war, instead ordered that they should be willing to accept "very heavy losses indeed"--An order they dutifully carried out by sustaining 50,000 casualties in only three days of fighting before the attack was called off as a failure. [This book] covers the full spectrum of the conflict, from press censorship to advances in military technology to the introduction of new expressions of mass grief, such as the moment of silence and public memorials.-Dust jacket.;Outbreak: Destruction of peace; Failure of the war of movement, Summer-Winter 1914 -- Escalation: Making a new world, Spring 1915-Spring; Widening of the war; War aims and peace negotiations; Land war in Europe, strategy; Technology, logistics, and, tactics; Manpower and morale; Armaments and economics; Naval warfare and blockade; Politics of the home fronts -- Outcome: Third phase, Spring 1917-Autumn 1918; February revolution and American intervention, Spring 1917; Towards exhaustion, Summer-Autumn 1917; Central powers' last throw, Autumn 1917-Summer 1918; Turn of the tide, Summer-Autumn 1918; Ceasefire -- Legacies: Peacemaking, 1919-20; Rebuilding, 1920-29; Demolition, 1929-45; Conclusion, the war becomes history. David Stevenson's widely acclaimed history of World War I changes forever our understanding of that pivotal conflict. Countering the commonplace assumption that politicians lost control of events, and that the war, once it began, quickly became an unstoppable machine, Stevenson contends that politicians deliberately took risks that led to war in July 1914. Far from being overwhelmed by the unprecedented scale and brutality of the bloodshed, political leaders on both sides remained very much in control of events throughout. According to Stevenson, the disturbing reality is that the course of the war was the result of conscious choices — including the continued acceptance of astronomical casualties. In fluid prose, Stevenson has written a definitive history of the man-made catastrophe that left lasting scars on the twentieth century. Cataclysm is a truly international history, incorporating new research on previously undisclosed records from governments in Europe and across the world. From the complex network of secret treaties and alliances that eventually drew all of Europe into the war, through the bloodbaths of Gallipoli and the Somme, to the arrival of American forces, and the massive political, economic, and cultural shifts the conflict left in its wake, Cataclysm is a major revision of World War I history. David Stevenson’s widely acclaimed history of World War I changes forever our understanding of that pivotal conflict. Countering the commonplace assumption that politicians lost control of events, and that the war, once it began, quickly became an unstoppable machine, Stevenson contends that politicians deliberately took risks that led to war in July 1914. Far from being overwhelmed by the unprecedented scale and brutality of the bloodshed, political leaders on both sides remained very much in control of events throughout. According to Stevenson, the disturbing reality is that the course of the war was the result of conscious choices#x97;including the continued acceptance of astronomical casualties. In fluid prose, Stevenson has written a definitive history of the man-made catastrophe that left lasting scars on the twentieth century. Cataclysm is a truly international history, incorporating new research on previously undisclosed records from governments in Europe and.. "The author analyzes the political influence of World War One [I] and maintains that politicians deliberately took risks that led to war in 1914 and that the war continued as a result of conscious choices including the acceptance of high casualties."