Great War, Total War
Great War, Total War
Stig Förster, Universität Bern, Switzerland
$63.00
USDThis volume analyzes the First World War in light of the concept of "total war," particularly the systematic erosion of the distinction between the military and civilian spheres. Leading scholars from Europe and North America explore the efforts of soldiers and statesmen, industrialists and financiers, professionals and civilian activists to adjust to the titanic, pervasive pressures that the military stalemate on the western front imposed on belligerent and neutral societies.
- Represents the third of a projected five volumes on total war, from the American Civil War to World War II
- Leading scholars from Europe and North America analyse the effects of total war on soldiers, statesmen and civilians
- Focuses on the systematic erosion of the distinction between military and civilian spheres
Reviews & endorsements
"This book is fascinating and should be read by anyone who is interested in the role that warfare plays on the development and destruction of society." Virginia Quarterly Review
"Collaborative research, useful theoretical constructs, and a wiilingness to use new methodologies to assess old and new problems of the Great War merit thanks. For a comprehensive understanding of the war on the western front, this volume with its outstanding essays and superb bibliography is required reading." Jrnl of Military History
"...these essays make important and original contributions to a historiography on the Great War that continues to evolve in exciting and promising new directions." Technology and Culture
Product details
September 2000Hardback
9780521773522
544 pages
229 × 152 × 35 mm
0.97kg
13 b/w illus. 1 map 17 tables
Available
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Table of Contents
- Introduction Stig Förster
- Part I. Basic Reflections:
- 1. From cabinet war to total war: the perspective of military doctrine, 1861–1918 Hew Strachan
- 2. World War I and the theory of total war: reflections on the British and German cases Roger Chickering
- Part II. The Changing Realities of Warfare:
- 3. World War I and the revolution in logistics Martin van Creveld
- 4. Mass warfare and the impact of technology Dennis E. Showalter
- 5. Total war through new weapons? The use of chemical agents in World War I Rolf-Dieter Müller
- 6. Planning total war? Falkenhayn and the Battle of Verdun 1916 Holger Afflerbach
- 7. The most extensive experiment that imagination can produce: violence of war, emotional stress, and German medicine Wolfgang U. Eckart
- Part III. War Against Noncombatants:
- 8. War between soldiers and enemy civilians, 1914–15 John Horne and Alan Kramer
- 9. The blockade of Germany and the strategy of starvation Avner Offer
- 10. Total rhetoric, limited war: Germany's U-boat campaign, 1917–18 Holger H. Herwig
- 11. The first air war against noncombatants: strategic bombing of German cities in World War I Christian Geinitz
- 12. Bullying the neutrals: the case of the Netherlands Marc Frey
- Part IV. Politicians, Soldiers and the Problem of Unlimited Warfare:
- 13. Poincaré, Clemenceau, and the quest for total victory J. F. V. Keiger
- 14. Strategy and unlimited warfare in Germany: Moltke, Falkenhayn, and Ludendorff Wilhelm Deist
- 15. The strategy of unlimited warfare: Kitchener, Robertson, and Haig David French
- 16. French strategy on the Western Front, 1914–18 David Stevenson
- 17. Strategy and total war in the United States Russell F. Weigley
- Part V. Mobilizing Economies and Finance for War:
- 18. War aims, state intervention, and business leadership in Germany: the case of Hugo Stinnes Gerald D. Feldman
- 19. Lloyd George and the management of the British war economy Keith Grieves
- 20. Better late than never: the American economic war effort, 1917–18 Elisabeth Glaser
- 21. How (not) to pay for the war: traditional finance and total war Niall Ferguson
- Part VI. Societies Mobilized for War:
- 22. Mobilizing German society for war Richard Bessel
- 23. Women's wartime services under the cross: patriotic communities in Germany, 1912–18 Jean H. Quataert
- 24. Pandora's Box: propaganda and war hysteria in the United States during World War I Jörg Nagler
- 25. Painting and music during and after the Great War: the art of total war Arthur Marwick
- Index.
