Nevertheless, some observers, including Helmuth von Moltke the elder, Ivan Bloch, and Frederich Engels, came remarkably close. It would be quite defensible to argue that the point of the Augsburg conference is moot since no one, no matter how prescient, could have predicted the carnage and totality (understood in these books as a Weberian ideal type) of 1914-18. As a result, the books are in the forefront of a historiography on the Great War that is increasingly global in focus. Those nations' colonial wars bring the Philippines, China (through Sabine Dabringhaus's essay on German participation in the Boxer Rebellion), South Africa, and East Africa into the picture as well. Anticipating Total War focuses more narrowly on the United States and Germany, but Great War, Total War includes essays on France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.
Their essays, along with those of the editors themselves, are among the strongest, particularly in their comparative and international approach.
The second comes to less consensus, but its essays are, on the whole, stronger, more provocative, and more useful.Ĭontributors include such renowned military historians as John Whiteclay Chambers II, Holger Herwig, Dennis Showalter, Hew Strachan, David Trask, Martin van Creveld, and Russell Weigley. Great War, Total War asks the somewhat more nebulous question of whether the Great War was "total." The first volume returns a solid consensus (the answer is no). Anticipating Total War asks in particular whether their experience of warfare between 18 led influential American and German observers to understand the type of warfare that emerged in 1914. These two volumes, which contain papers presented at conferences held at Augsburg, Germany, in 1994, and Münchenwiler, Switzerland, two years later, address the question of total war. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Edited by Roger Chickering and Stig Förster. Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front, 1914-1918. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Boemeke, Roger Chickering, and Stig Förster.
Book Review Anticipating Total War: The German and American Experiences, 1871-1914 Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front, 1914-1918Īnticipating Total War: The German and American Experiences, 1871-1914. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
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