Fighting the Great War: A Global History

by Michael S. Neiberg

Overview

Despair at Gallipoli. Victory at Vimy Ridge. A European generation lost, an American spirit found. The First World War, the deadly herald of a new era, continues to captivate readers. In this lively book, Michael Neiberg offers a concise history based on the latest research and insights into the soldiers, commanders, battles, and legacies of the Great War.

Tracing the war from Verdun to Salonika to Baghdad to German East Africa, Neiberg illuminates the global nature of the conflict. More than four years of mindless slaughter in the trenches on the western front, World War I was the first fought in three dimensions: in the air, at sea, and through mechanized ground warfare. New weapons systems—tanks, bomber aircraft, and long-range artillery—all shaped the battle environment. Moving beyond the standard portrayal of the war's generals as "butchers and bunglers," Neiberg offers a nuanced discussion of officers constrained by the monumental scale of complex events. Diaries and letters of men serving on the front lines capture the personal stories and brutal conditions—from Alpine snows to Mesopotamian sands—under which these soldiers lived, fought, and died.

Generously illustrated, with many never-before-published photographs, this book is an impressive blend of analysis and narrative. Anyone interested in understanding the twentieth century must begin with its first global conflict, and there is no better place to start than with Fighting the Great War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674022515
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/30/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Michael S. Neiberg is the award-winning author of Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe, Fighting the Great War, and Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I, among other books. He is Professor of History and the inaugural Chair of War Studies at the US Army War College.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Timeline of Major Events

What People are Saying About This

This superbly well organized book provides a highly readable and reliable general history of a war that continues to command our attention.

Editorial Reviews

Michael S. Neiberg's military history Fighting the Great War...shows the global reach of the war machine. Neiberg refuses to conclude that the war was futile or pointless, though he provides lots of evidence of strategic and tactical failures on both sides of the line.

Times Literary Supplement - Jay Winter

Michael Neiberg dissects the resulting carnage on both sides with chilling precision.

The Australian - Tony Maniaty

Tackling a topic such as the First World War in a multivolume history is a major achievement; doing it justice in a single book is exceptional. Michael S. Neiberg's Fighting the Great War is just that kind of a book. On 364 pages, divided into thirteen chapters, the author narrates the momentous events and battles on all fronts—the Western in France and Belgium; the Eastern in Russia and Austria-Hungary; the Middle Eastern in Turkey, Mesopotamia, and Palestine; and the African in South Africa and German South West Africa...Neiberg's book is a clear, concise, and remarkably balanced study of the war that shaped the twentieth century...It is an excellent analysis of the political and military forces that drove the conflict to its bitter conclusion.

Armed Forces & Society - Bianka J. Adams

An authoritative, compelling, and brief narrative of World War I in its military and political aspects. To provide a comprehensive account of the battles and leaders of World War I in a book fewer than four hundred pages is a major achievement. Michael S. Neiberg has accomplished that feat in a lucid, fast-paced treatment of the conflagration that raged across the entire world from 1914 to 1918 in Fighting the Great War: A Global History...Neiberg has a good eye for the relevant anecdote and offers fresh judgments about many of the key figures in this great conflict, such as Erich Ludendorff and Douglas Haig. He is also adept at explaining battles and their significance. There are few better introductions to the complex issues and enduring historical problems that grew out of the war than Neiberg's book. Balanced in its judgments, crisp in its prose, and powerful in its evocation of a formative moment in world civilization, Fighting the Great War is a significant scholarly contribution.

Magill Book Reviews - Lewis L. Gould

An excellent, concise and balanced history of World War I. Neiberg's ability to present the complex events of the war in such a readable narrative is very impressive. Fighting the Great War is a valuable contribution to the literature on the conflict.

Edward M. Coffman

This superbly well organized book provides a highly readable and reliable general history of a war that continues to command our attention.

Holger Herwig

In a fine general history of the First World War, Michael S. Neiberg attributes the massive bloodletting on the Western front to political leaders who insisted that the armed forces remain on the offensive, not to obtuse military officers as many others have.

Historical Journal - Mark Moyar

The author of this book has written a lucid account of the military aspects of World War I. Based largely on secondary sources, his work takes the reader through the conflict's major campaigns and presents a number of crisp judgments on the era's leaders...[G]eneral readers will find the book a stimulating and accessible introduction to the conflict that shaped the course of the twentieth century.

Historian - Neil Heyman

A searching study of the war to end all wars.-- "Kirkus Reviews" (1/15/2005 12:00:00 AM)

An authoritative, compelling, and brief narrative of World War I in its military and political aspects. To provide a comprehensive account of the battles and leaders of World War I in a book fewer than four hundred pages is a major achievement. Michael S. Neiberg has accomplished that feat in a lucid, fast-paced treatment of the conflagration that raged across the entire world from 1914 to 1918 in Fighting the Great War: A Global History...Neiberg has a good eye for the relevant anecdote and offers fresh judgments about many of the key figures in this great conflict, such as Erich Ludendorff and Douglas Haig. He is also adept at explaining battles and their significance. There are few better introductions to the complex issues and enduring historical problems that grew out of the war than Neiberg's book. Balanced in its judgments, crisp in its prose, and powerful in its evocation of a formative moment in world civilization, Fighting the Great War is a significant scholarly contribution.--Lewis L. Gould "Magill Book Reviews" (9/1/2005 12:00:00 AM)

In a fine general history of the First World War, Michael S. Neiberg attributes the massive bloodletting on the Western front to political leaders who insisted that the armed forces remain on the offensive, not to obtuse military officers as many others have.--Mark Moyar "Historical Journal" (1/1/2007 12:00:00 AM)

In recounting the events of WWI with skill and clarity, Neiberg...achieves a fine balance of narrative and analyses--no easy feat in a one-volume study. And Neiberg also goes considerably further afield than do many one-volume accounts.-- "Publishers Weekly" (1/24/2005 12:00:00 AM)

Michael Neiberg dissects the resulting carnage on both sides with chilling precision.--Tony Maniaty "The Australian"

Michael S. Neiberg's military history Fighting the Great War...shows the global reach of the war machine. Neiberg refuses to conclude that the war was futile or pointless, though he provides lots of evidence of strategic and tactical failures on both sides of the line.--Jay Winter "Times Literary Supplement" (6/16/2006 12:00:00 AM)

Neiberg melds an analysis of the strategic issues facing belligerents during World War I with an understanding of the tactical challenges of conducting war in a modern industrial world...By including appraisals of the other fronts Neiberg also shows why the western front was the crucible of victory and defeat...This book reflects the remarkable development of the historiography of World War I that has occurred over the past decade.--Frederic Krome "Library Journal" (2/1/2005 12:00:00 AM)

Tackling a topic such as the First World War in a multivolume history is a major achievement; doing it justice in a single book is exceptional. Michael S. Neiberg's Fighting the Great War is just that kind of a book. On 364 pages, divided into thirteen chapters, the author narrates the momentous events and battles on all fronts--the Western in France and Belgium; the Eastern in Russia and Austria-Hungary; the Middle Eastern in Turkey, Mesopotamia, and Palestine; and the African in South Africa and German South West Africa...Neiberg's book is a clear, concise, and remarkably balanced study of the war that shaped the twentieth century...It is an excellent analysis of the political and military forces that drove the conflict to its bitter conclusion.--Bianka J. Adams "Armed Forces & Society"

The author of this book has written a lucid account of the military aspects of World War I. Based largely on secondary sources, his work takes the reader through the conflict's major campaigns and presents a number of crisp judgments on the era's leaders...[G]eneral readers will find the book a stimulating and accessible introduction to the conflict that shaped the course of the twentieth century.--Neil Heyman "Historian"

An excellent, concise and balanced history of World War I. Neiberg's ability to present the complex events of the war in such a readable narrative is very impressive. Fighting the Great War is a valuable contribution to the literature on the conflict.--Edward M. Coffman, author of The Regulars: The American Army, 1898-1941

This superbly well organized book provides a highly readable and reliable general history of a war that continues to command our attention.--Holger Herwig, author of The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914-1918

From the Publisher

A searching study of the war to end all wars. World War I was inevitable, given the complex rivalries that existed among England, France, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the other players in the struggle. But, writes Neiberg (History/US Air Force Academy), it was not inevitable just because an unfortunate Austro-Hungarian nobleman was assassinated: "The archduke's political views were unpopular in the Viennese court, and the royals of Europe had often snubbed Franz Ferdinand because he had married a woman of inferior social status." It took months after the assassination for the Allied and Central Powers to decide that the time was right for bloodletting. Many another poor assumption and bad decision followed. The Germans discounted the British army, even though it was probably the best-trained and most effective in Europe at the time; the German army, further, settled on a policy of Schrecklichkeit, or "frightfulness," in Belgium, "a policy that had been approved by leaders of both the army and the government" but that succeeded largely in uniting the Allied citizenry against the savage Hun; the Russians relied on cavalry against machine guns, the French on forts against heavy artillery, the British on incompetent leaders, and so on, all at terrible cost. The rate of butchery was established early on, as Neiberg shows: in the first few weeks of the war, the French army lost 200,000 men and a full tenth of its officer corps "in an attempt to recover Alsace and Lorraine, only to discover that the real threat lay elsewhere." And things were no better on the fringes of the war, in places like Bulgaria and Cameroon, where the fighting looked only a little more modern than the wars ofthe 18th century. Even the peace was confused, with "Bolshevism, authoritarianism, the beginnings of fascism, and fragile democracies" in the place of the old empires and dynasties. A very worthy addition to the historical literature, complementing Hew Strachan's The First World War (2004), Robert Massie's Castles of Steel (2003), and other recent studies of the war.

Kirkus Reviews