Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918

I bought this book on the strength of a review in History Today, in order to prepare a unit of work for a course I hadn't taught for 20 years. The book has got three advantages: it gives a very useful bibliographical appendix (good for those who are 20 years behind); it is full of interesting information (the bits about agriculture, the Hamsterfahrten and the 1915 Schweinmord stick in the mind); and - coming from the previous point, it is just a bloody good read. This is great, comprehensive, open-minded history. Three months ago I had grave doubts about embarking on German history again; now I'm all for it.

As a self taught historian of The Great War, I think this book is excellent.

Imperial Germany and the Great War is a masterful combination of the political, social, and cultural history of the war with the relevant military events. I know of no single book that covers so much territory in so little space. Anyone interested in the what was going on behind the lines will find the answers here!

In a relatively short volume, the author gives a lucid, restrained survey of a complicated and controversial topic. Coverage is of all phases of the war affecting Germany--military, social, economic, and political--though relatively short shrift is given to military matters, so this book is not for World War I military "enthusiasts"--unless they want to go beyond what occurred in combat. A particularly good feature of the book is the wealth of references to the vast amount of scholarly work done on the war in English and German over the last half century. The author's comprehensive "Suggestions for Further Reading" will serve well either the novice historian or the layperson interested in particular aspects of Germany and the Great War.

The theme of this well-balanced, well-arranged book is not the German military effort but political and social developments on the home front. In the end, these were to prove almost as decisive as the greater military strength of the Entente powers and the United States in bringing about Germany's defeat. As the author shows, Germany was a deeply divided society going into the war, and the "civic peace" proclaimed in August 1914 among the nation's bitterly opposed social classes and political interests was not to last long. The attempt to sustain a war effort against France, Great Britain and Russia - with only the hopelessly incompetent Austro-Hungarian Empire as an ally - necessitated huge sacrifices on the home front. Ultimately, the majority of the German population was not willing to keep making those sacrifices, particularly on behalf of a political system that had evolved by late 1916 from the semi-authoritarianism of the pre-war Kaiserreich into a pure military dictatorship. Adolf Hitler later came to power exploiting the myth of the "November criminals" - that is, those who led the German revolution of November 1918 and who, in his eyes, traitorously inflicted a defeat on Germany that need never have taken place. However, as Chickering shows in some detail, the truth is that Germany was certain by mid-1918 to lose the war anyway. This is a book for readers who are interested more in the political than the military aspects of the First World War. It holds no surprises but is authoritative and efficiently written.