Book Review: July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Patrick Shrier

I have probably read 30-40 books exploring the origins of World War I in the past 5-6 years and I thought that just about everything relevant there was to be known about the events of the month leading up to the war were known and historians have just been stirring the ashes and finding trivia in trying to determine a more accurate chain of causation. July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin disabused of that notion. This work has made me aware of several things about the critical month between the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of World War I that I am amazed have not gotten wider notice in the literature on World War I’s origins. This book is superb diplomatic history that through tight, focused prose and in depth research manages to untangle the tangled web of events in July 1914.

The book itself has 406 pages of text separated into two sections of 25 chapters including an Author’s Note, prologue, and epilogue. There are extensive endnotes for each chapter with relevant footnotes inserted into the text where appropriate and a 10 page bibliography. The two sections of the book cover the immediate reactions of the Great Powers of the day to the assassination and the subsequent diplomatic maneuvering leading up to the war.

There are several revelations in the book and no time is wasted in introducing the first, which I thought was a bombshell. This is that the relevant Russian and French archives have almost no records of the activities of their respective ambassadors for the month of July. What records for their activities that do exist are all secondary sources from the other great powers such as Germany, Austria, and Britain. I find it amazing that this lack of records has not been more highly touted in books on the origins of the war as it was these ambassadors, Paléologue for the French in St. Petersburg and Izvolsky for the Russians in France that played a pivotal role in relations of the two countries during the period leading up to Russian mobilization and the coordination between the two Allies. Another interesting fact that has gotten short shrift in the literature thus far is the sequence of events and timelines surrounding Russian mobilization. It is widely known that Russia began mobilization before any other power, what is not so widely known is that Russia had apparently decided on war at the time she declared the pre-mobilization “Period Preparatory to War” which was just mobilization by another name to begin with.

I have thought for years that the ultimate responsibility for the outbreak of war in 1914 lay with Russia. McMeekin’s work tends to confirm me in that belief. The final decision for war lay with the Tsar and more importantly with Sazonov his Foreign Minister and Yanushkevitch the Chief of the General Staff, both of whom pushed for war. .As you read the narrative it becomes increasingly clear that Russia wanted war. Why is not perfectly clear although it is certainly plausible that Russia felt they needed to be assertive because they had been humbled so often in the decade prior to the war and that Russia was at risk of losing its status as a great power. There is also the element of Russian lust for control of the outlet on the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, which would give the Russians a warm water port and was something they had wanted at least as far back as the Crimean War. Russia wanted war and right up until the last minute they had the ability to avoid one, all they had to do was stand down and allow the Austrians to punish Serbia for their support of regicide. That, the Russians would not do and in the end they dragged the rest of Europe into a war that was unnecessary.

Sean McMeekin has taken an opaque subject like diplomatic history and shed light on the manner in which diplomacy was conducted in the month prior to World War I. He masterfully weaves together the various actions of all the powers of Europe and makes a very complex series of events clear and easy to understand. July 1914: Countdown to War is the best diplomatic history of the period I have ever run across and is certain to become a classic and the standard work on the subject. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in why and how World War I broke out. A very clear look at a very muddy subject.

Book Review: The Battlefields of the First World War: The Unseen Panoramas of the Western Front by Peter Barton

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Patrick Shrier

The Battlefields of the First World War: The Unseen Panoramas of the Western Front by Peter Barton is one of the most visually stunning books about WWI I have ever read. This work is more than just a history of British participation on the Western Front. It makes use of officially produced trench panoramas to illuminate conditions of trench warfare better than almost any other pictorial record of WWI I have run across.

The book itself is 358 pages in length with a bibliography, picture credits, list of further reading, and index. In addition, and one of the things that makes this book outstanding it includes two CD-ROMs that contain digital versions of all of the panoramas discussed in the book. The worst part is the prohibitive price of the book, anywhere from $369 to $900 on Amazon as of this writing, that means this book is only in reach of the wealthy or libraries. I got the copy I read from a library. All the panoramas used in the book and many additional ones are also available online at the Imperial War Museum First World War Panoramas Collection site. The photos included with the book are more easily searchable than those from the internet but the internet site is more accessible to the average person. The book is organized into eight geographically organized chapters that start at Ypres and work their way east to Cambrai, the furthest east extension of the British Sector of the front during the war. There are over 200 panoramas discussed in the book and each is numbered and available on the CDs.

One of the most interesting things about the photos used in the book is the amazing difference between the photos seen here and the typical image people have of the conditions of trench warfare. Most people, myself included prior to reading this, have an image of the Western Front fixed in their minds in which the battlefield is a barren wasteland full of corpses, shell holes, and mud, in which any greenery is absent. The photos here give the lie to that image. To be sure there are panoramas in which that stereotype is upheld, particularly those taken in Ypres sector during the great battles fought there. But even in those pictures, the band of destruction is relatively narrow and undamaged land can be seen just outside of the zone of fighting in almost every picture. What was most striking to me is how much greenery is to be seen in No Man’s Land in the photos and the sheer emptiness of the landscape. Besides some trenches, and the occasional helmet of a soldier poking above a trench there is no one to be seen.

The photos are illuminating for several reasons. One, many photos show exactly how close the opposing trenches really were to each other. It is one thing to read that No Man’s Land was only 30 yards across in places, it is something else to see that in pictures. Another thing illustrated by the photos quite well is how commanding German positions were across most of the front and how big a difference 90 feet in elevation can make. When I visited the Ypres battlefields in 2004 I was shocked by how far the view was from on top of the 95 foot height of Passchendaele Ridge. That is also illustrated in these panoramas.

The narrative text in the book puts each photo into perspective and places it within the the context of the war itself and the battles themselves. I have been to several of the battlefields in the book and the several photos from the same positions are included in the book. These then and now contrasts highlight how little the terrain has changed in the ensuing decades since the war ended.

The panoramas are the reason for this book and they make it worthwhile to read, even for those knowledgeable about WWI. Along with the narrative, they give the reader a whole new sense of the experience of life in the trenches. This is an outstanding book that I highly recommend. I just wish it was not so prohibitively expensive, which would make it available to a much wider audience.

Book Review: Holy Wars: 3000 Years of Battles in the Holy Land by Gary Rashba

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Patrick Shrier

HOLY WARS: 3000 Years of Battles in the Holy Land is one of the better primers about conflict in the Holy Land to appear within the last few years. It consists of 17 chapters covering the initial Israelite conquest of Canaan in 1400 B.C. to the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in 1982. The more recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict is covered in the epilogue. The work is 288 pages and includes extensive notes at the end of each chapter as well as a well sourced bibliography and index. The Kindle edition, which is what I have, was mostly free of editing errors and the only complaint I have is the maps did not render well. That is a common problem with the B&W Kindle though and does not reflect on the book, the maps showed up excellently when viewed on my PC.

This book is not aimed at the academic historian but is rather intended for the more general audience who just wants to know more about the military history of this violent part of the world. In that, Mr. Rashba does an outstanding job of clearly narrating significant events from throughout the history of the Holy Land while fitting those events into the flow of time. He does so in a surprisingly balanced and objective manner despite the author himself claiming he was not sure if he maintained that balance due to personal connections to the events he describes. I can happily claim he succeeded admirably in suppressing any personal bias.

His selection of battles and campaigns is good and comprehensive. Mr. Rashba acknowledges where his sources are scarce and makes use of modern research, particularly archaeological research where it is germane to his account. He covers some events, such as Napoleon’s Palestine campaign, that are mere footnotes in western historiography. I was impressed with his treatment of the Mamluks and their battle against the Mongols in 1260 which is practically ignored in most English language histories, even histories of the Holy Land. He covers the Roman response to the first century Jewish revolt but only mentions Masada in passing. In a way that is fitting as the capture of Masada was actually a side note to the campaign but as he mentions, the battle and Jewish Response to the siege has become iconic to the modern Israeli Defense Forces.

In all Holy Wars is one of the best surveys of the Holy Land I have ever run across and I am certainly glad I did. This book should be on the shelf of anyone who seeks to understand the history behind the hatreds evidenced in modern Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

Book Review: The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle by Michael Stephenson

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Patrick Shrier

[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the publisher for purposes of reviewing it. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own]

Michael Stephenson’s work The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle follows somewhat in the tradition of classics such a Keegan’s The Face of Battle and Victor David Hanson’s The Western Way of War. Where it differs from these two works as that while Keegan and Hanson focus on specific battles or time periods this book aims to be a more general description of the experience of combat throughout recorded history. In that, the book is amazingly successful. The author has produced a volume that does the job of bringing home te reality of warfare to those who have never experienced it. What I finds even more refreshing is that he does without weighing the book down with moral judgements on the rightness or wrongness of war itself, instead he accepts the objective reality that war happens and goes about the business of explaining what it is like.

It is written in an easy free-flowing style that is almost a pleasure to read and the text is organized in such a way that it is also compelling to read. I found myself making excuses to my wife to keep reading to the end of the chapter before I did something else. The descriptions of combat and death, ultimately this book is about violent death, ring true. I was struck in particular by the realism of the combat descriptions in the section on the Iraq war. On page 361 he talks about the US Marines “Pine Box Rule” in which if someone has to go home in a pine box, it is not going to be Marines. In my own experience in Iraq in 2004 my unit had a similar rule except we called it doing the “Death Blossom” when we came under enemy fire. If his descriptions of combat and death hold as true to reality throughout the rest of the book as they do for modern war, and I have no reason, to think they don’t, then Mr. Stephenson has produced what should be an instant classic. It should also make its way to the official reading lists of all the services, especially the US Army and Marines.

At 406 pages of text the book is not too long for the interested layman and includes an index, extensive notes, and a truly impressive bibliography that together amount to 54 pages alone. The book is organized into eight thematic, chronological chapters that cover warfare from the Ancient World to the modern wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with an appendix discussing the state of military medicine through time. The only very minor criticism I could have for this book is that it is Western Centric in focus, that is true of much western scholarship though and this book makes no claim to universal history.

As a combat veteran myself, I have said for years in private conversation and on some public forums that no one who has not been in combat can possibly grasp what it is like, this work goes a long way to roving me wrong. Michael Stephenson comes as close to describing the reality of combat as I have ever read from a non-combat vet. This objective and fair description of death in battle should be on the shelf of every military historian, whether they are a veteran or not. Anyone who wants to know what combat is like without putting their own skin on the line should read this book. If nothing else, they will gain a better understanding of the sacrifices made by those who don the uniform of their country and go forth to do battle. This is a good description of what George Orwell’s “rough men” go through to allow their countrymen to sleep safe at home.An outstanding book that is sure to remain the standard in its niche for years to come.

Book Review: The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Patrick Shrier

The Guns of August is one of the classic histories of World War I. It was originally published in 1962 and has remained a mainstay of accounts of the opening months of the war ever since. The book reads more like fiction than reality as Mrs. Tuchman brings the main players alive through her descriptive style of writing. She effortlessly recounts the events of August, 1914 and tries to bring the reader into the mood of that month when world shaking events were happening. Not all of her conclusions about the cases of the war have withstood the test of time and she repeats some stories that have since been questioned particularly her accounts of German brutality in Belgium and the origins for the harshness. Those accounts have subsequently been shown to have a substantial basis in truth but myth has been so interwoven with the facts that the truth will probably never be known with any degree of certainty. She certainly indicts the conduct and motivation of some of the major commanders on both sides of the war but seems to have a particular dislike of Sir John French, the commander of the BEF, who she singles out for ridicule and disparagement just about every time he is mentioned in the book.

That being said, despite it’s faults The Guns of August is a very good introduction to WWI for someone who has never studied the war. The book was written for a mainstream audience and thus avoids the mind numbing dullness that the vast majority of history books seem to possess for the average reader. From the opening line, this books grabs the readers attention and carries them along until the end. After almost fifty years this is still one of the best histories of the opening of hostilities of World War I available and she be read by every student of the war and those readers simply interested in the war and its outcome.