A Higher Form of Killing: Six Weeks in World War I That Forever Changed the Nature of Warfare

by Diana Preston

Overview

Between April 22 and May 30, 1915, Western civilization was shocked. World War I was already appalling in its brutality, but it had until then been fought on the battlefield and by rules long agreed by convention. Suddenly those rules were abandoned when Germany forever altered the way war would be fought. On April 22, at Ypres, German canisters spewed poison gas at French and Canadian soldiers in their trenches; on May 7, the German submarine, U-20, without warning, torpedoed the passenger liner Lusitania, killing 1,198 civilians; and on May 31, a German zeppelin began the first aerial bombardment of London and its inhabitants. Each of these actions violated rules of war carefully agreed to at the Hague Conventions of 1898 and 1907 and were deliberately breached by Germany in an attempt to spread terror and force the Allies to surrender. While that failed, the psychological damage caused by these attacks far outweighed the casualties. The era of weapons of mass destruction had dawned.

While each of these momentous events has been chronicled in histories of the war, celebrated historian Diana Preston links them for the first time, revealing the dramatic stories and the personalities behind them through the eyes of those who were there—whether making the decisions to use the weapons or experiencing their horrifying effect in the trenches, on board the Lusitania or on the streets of London. Placing the attacks in the context of the centuries-old debate over what constitutes "just war," Preston shows how, in their aftermath, the other combatants felt the necessity to develop extreme weapons of their own. In our current time of terror, when weapons of mass destruction are once again implemented and threatened and wartime atrocities abound in a very different kind of conflict, the vivid story of their birth is of great relevance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620402122
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/24/2015
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Diana Preston is an acclaimed historian and author of the definitive Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy, Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History), The Boxer Rebellion, andThe Dark Defile: Britain'’s Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838–1842, among other works of narrative history. She and her husband, Michael, live in London.

Table of Contents

Spring 1915-The Legacy 1

Chapter 1 "A Flash of Lightning from the North" 6

Chapter 2 "Humanising War" 16

Chapter 3 "The Law of Facts" 28

Chapter 4 "A Scrap of Paper" 36

Chapter 5 "The Worst of Contrabands" 50

Chapter 6 "England Will Burn" 61

Chapter 7 "A Most Effective Weapon" 70

Chapter 8 "Something That Makes People Permanently Incapable of Fighting" 78

Chapter 9 "Operation Disinfection" 94

Chapter 10 "This Filthy Loathsome Pestilence" 107

Chapter 11 "Solomon's Temple" 120

Chapter 12 "They Got Us This Time, All Right" 137

Chapter 13 "Wilful and Wholesale Murder" 151

Chapter 14 "Too Proud to Fight" 160

Chapter 15 "The Very Earth Shook" 178

Chapter 16 "Order, Counter-Order, Disorder!" 196

Chapter 17 "A Gift of Love" 204

Chapter 18 "Do You Know Anything About Gas?" 214

Chapter 19 "Zepp and a Portion of Clouds" 221

Chapter 20 "Remember the Lusitania" 227

Chapter 21 "Each One Must Fight On to the End" 241

Chapter 22 "Weapons of Mass Destruction" 260

Appendix: The Lusitania Controversies 279

Acknowledgments 289

Notes and Sources 291

Bibliography 315

Index 325

Editorial Reviews

Building on previous scholarship, including her own, Preston makes the case that three seemingly peripheral aspects of the war are more important than traditionally believed. Over six weeks in 1915, in contravention of international law, the Germans unleashed poison gas, unrestricted submarine warfare and the aerial bombardment of London…Preston deftly, and graphically, weaves the complex stories—hitherto kept distinct—of these land, sea and air innovations into a connected narrative. For the first time, readers can grasp the mounting cognitive assault on civilians, soldiers and politicians of the curious clustering of events that spring.

The New York Times Book Review - Alexander Rose

★ 02/09/2015
Historian Preston (Before the Fallout) places the creation of poison gas, the torpedo, and the zeppelin into the context of warfare and the human toll exacted in a well-detailed, shattering survey timed to mark the 100th anniversary of the weapons' use in WWI. She explains the scorched-earth policy of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II, which mandated a complete triumph for the Fatherland at all cost during the infamous six-week period in 1915 where this trio of deadly weapons was introduced to untold suffering for soldiers and civilians alike. Conventional war, as Preston writes, entered a new phase of killing when poison gas was dropped on unsuspecting French and Canadian soldiers in the trenches at Ypres, Belgium, on April 22; when a German submarine torpedoed the Lusitania on May 20; and when a German zeppelin bombed London on May 31. Confidential talks, last-minute compromises, and bogus assurances comprise the dark heart of this dramatic account as the merchants of conflict seek to heighten mass panic, terror, and death regardless of traditional military rules. This is Preston at the top of her analytical form, offering fascinating modern parables on war, mortality and civilization. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"A British historian of considerable breadth and accomplishment, Preston (The Dark Defile: Britain's Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842, 2012, etc.) focuses on three wartime innovations that elevated to new heights mankind's ability to slaughter itself: submarines, zeppelins and poison gas . . . In what is often difficult but necessary reading, Preston provides haunting descriptions of the effects of poison gas. A harrowing—and, in this era of drones, absolutely pertinent—look at the rapacious reaches of man's murderous imagination." —starred review, Kirkus

"Preston deftly and graphically weaves the complex stories—hitherto kept distinct—of these land, sea and air innovations into a connected narrative. For the first time, readers can grasp the mounting cognitive assault on civilians, soldiers and politicians of the curious clustering of events that spring." —New York Times Book Review

"Well-detailed, shattering . . . This is Preston at the top of her analytical form, offering fascinating modern parables on war, mortality and civilization." —starred review, Publishers Weekly

"For an illuminating look at the Lusitania in the context of Germany’s pioneering use of weapons of mass destruction, see Diana Preston’s A Higher Form of Killing." —Lev Grossman, TIME Magazine

"[A] gripping and excellent book . . . Preston, whose previous books include a history of the sinking of the Lusitania, tells this grim story well. Her extensive archival research fills in the historical chronology with well-selected quotations from personal accounts of participants at every level of civilian and military life and of government." —Richard Rhodes, Washington Post

"The author's excellent use of war diaries and newspapers in the sections on Zeppelin warfare are particularly gripping, juxtaposing the terror and awe felt by Londoners and the heroism required of Zeppelin crews . . . A well-documented and argued analysis of the emergence of modern warfare." —starred review, Shelf Awareness

"A fascinating and chilling chronicle of weapons of mass destruction . . . Preston's eloquent and objective history of war is immensely exciting." —Library Journal

"Vividly narrating the deployment of each of these new technologies, Preston emphasizes the horrors they delivered and the ethical deliberations (or absence thereof) of key decision makers. Viewed together, Preston suggests, these three new ways of killing demonstrated the shortcomings of the laws of war and set the trajectory for even more powerful weapons of mass destruction." —Booklist

"[A] fine new book . . . Preston succeeds best in her dramatic renderings of the gas attacks at Ypres, the terror on the decks of the Lusitania as it sank, and the surreal flights of giant airships that seemed like an H.G. Wells fiction come to life." —Boston Globe

From the Publisher

01/01/2015
Historian Preston (Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima) presents a fascinating and chilling chronicle of weapons of mass destruction. The author begins with a brief summary of three groundbreaking events, including the torpedoing of the passenger liner Lusitania by a German submarine and the aerial bombing of London by German Zeppelins, both in 1914, the initial year of the World War I. These events violated peacetime rules established at the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and drastically changed the nature of warfare. The author then provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of rivalry that frames the context for these events. The bulk of the narrative consists of detailed, often firsthand accounts of each of these brutal attacks. This work will appeal to history buffs of all backgrounds who are intrigued by the physical and psychological damage inflicted by weapons of mass destruction. VERDICT Readers on the edge of their seats throughout Jared M. Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies will find Preston's eloquent and objective history of war immensely exciting.—Marian Mays, Butte-Silver Bow P.L., MT

Library Journal

★ 2014-11-29
A British historian of considerable breadth and accomplishment, Preston (The Dark Defile: Britain's Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842, 2012, etc.) focuses on three wartime innovations that elevated to new heights mankind's ability to slaughter itself: submarines, zeppelins and poison gas.All were advanced to marvelous efficacy during the first weeks of World War I, thanks largely to the technologically savvy Germans, who shook off the world's condemnation of their first use of asphyxiating gas to spur the trench stalemate in Belgium, with the justification that the other side would promptly use it, too—and they were right. The first Geneva Convention in 1864 drew up agreed-upon protocols for treating the sick and wounded in war and created the Red Cross. The Hague Peace Conference of 1899, in the cause of "humanizing war," considered banning certain weapons, such as asphyxiating gases and projectiles and explosives launched from the air. To little avail: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin had secured German financing for his dirigible prototype by 1900; the first U-boat had arrived at the Krupp's plant in 1906 and was pushed into production because of British advances in submarines; and chemist Fritz Haber, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, arrived at the solution to blow chlorine gas over enemy trenches. (Not to be forgotten is Alfred Nobel's development of dynamite and smokeless powder.) All available methods would be enlisted to help Germany embark on a swift and lethal thrust in the spring of 1915, dropping bombs by zeppelin over London, torpedoing the Lusitania and killing 1,198 people, and gassing troops of young men who had no idea how to manage a chemical attack. In what is often difficult but necessary reading, Preston provides haunting descriptions of the effects of poison gas. A harrowing—and, in this era of drones, absolutely pertinent—look at the rapacious reaches of man's murderous imagination.

Kirkus Reviews

Read More