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abehab's review against another edition
4.0
‘’By the end of the war, the conflict had consumed the empires of Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary. The splintering of these empires created a patchwork of nations, from Finland and Estonia in the north to Yugoslavia in the south, sowing the seeds for conflicts that continued for the rest of the century’’
Contemporary books written about the first world war should have two main objectives in my opinion. The first is to focus on an aspect of the war that hasn't been given an extensive attention to as yet. The second one is to convey information that recently came to light. This book is geared more towards the former than the latter objective. [b:Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914|18525874|Collision of Empires The War on the Eastern Front in 1914|Prit Buttar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408314773l/18525874._SY75_.jpg|26230643], is the first of four books in [a:Prit Buttar|4098424|Prit Buttar|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1629096587p2/4098424.jpg]’s, The Eastern Front Series. It focuses primarily on the major battles of the great war in 1914, that took place in East Prussia, The Russian Poland Salient and Galicia. The study of this front is imperative for understanding the first world war as a whole. The events in the eastern front had profound consequences on the western front, with Germany being an important link between the two fronts.
The main belligerents on the eastern front in 1914 were The German Empire, The Austria-Hungary Empire and The Russian Empire. In contrast to the western front, the war in the east was a highly mobile affair, and it covered huge expanses of land. The Imperial Russian Army was highly hierarchical and was administered by The Stavka. The Tsar sat at the helm of it, and Grand Duke Nikolai (The Tsar's uncle) was its Chief of General Staff. The Austro-Hungarian army (K.U.K) fielded a multi-ethnic army. The dual monarchy had given recognition to eleven official languages under its umbrella. The army was de facto under the command of Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf. The Imperial German Army was the most professional army of all the powers involved. Although Helmuth von Moltke the Younger started out as being the Chief of General Staff, he was replaced by Erich von Falkenhayn after the First Battle of the Marne in the west. Despite that, as far as the Eastern Front in 1914 is concerned, Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg were the centre of command.
The first three chapters are dedicated to the military doctrines, cultures and thoughts of the three armies in the decades prior to the war breaking out. These chapters mostly focus on lessons drawn from The Franco-Prussan war (1870-1871), mobilization plans that were under consideration should a war break out, the complex web of alliances in Europe and other important factors that are vital towards understanding pre-1914 Europe. The next chapter deals with the series of interconnected diplomatic and military escalations, generally referred to as ‘’The July Crisis’’. This is the period roughly between the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 and The Austria-Hungary declaration of war on Russia on 6 August 1914. The subsequent chapters focus on the battles that took place on the Eastern Front, from the opening battle of Stallupönen to the battle of Łódź. The final two chapters analyse the consequences of a year’s worth of engagements and the expectations of the belligerents for 1915.
I thought the inclusion of the chapter on The Serbian front was an excellent touch. The ‘’quick and clean’’ Balkan war Kaiser Wilhelm II requested of The Austro-Hungarian empire would eventually escalate into a world war. Essential to this escalation was the fact that the K.U.K armies, under Oskar Potiorek, were being held up in Serbia. The failure of the Austro-Hungarian war aims had had huge implications. It emphasized defeating Serbia swiftly and crushing any Slavic rebellion in The Balkans. Failing to accomplish those aims meant that Austria-Hungary couldn’t manoeuvre its armies out of Serbia quick enough to engage Serbia’s powerful ally Russia in Galicia. As such, discussions of The Serbian Front in examining the Eastern Front in 1914, is indispensable.
A major weakness I found with this book is the lack of adequate maps. I had to resort to referring to maps from other resources constantly. When present, the maps on the book are not of much help as an illustration tool. While the lack of maps is certainly a significant shortfall, one of the strengths of the book lies in its abundance of accounts from primary sources such as from commanders (e.g. Conrad and Mackensen), civilians (e.g. Helena Jabłońska’s memoirs from the sieges of Przemyśl), soldiers on the frontlines (e.g. The Hungarian Cavalryman Pál Kelemen) and Journalists (e.g. The notes of the French journalist Henry Barby from the Serbian front).
This is a very thick and technical book. Prit deals at the level of Corps and even at times divisions when describing battles and formations, while most other books choose the army level for analysis. The scope of the book being limited to a single front during a single year of a multi-year war, has allowed for very detailed descriptions of events. Sometimes this might make the presentation a bit dry and give the book a feel of a reference book. So, I can only recommend this book for fellow World War I aficionados out there.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
3.0
Disclaimer: ARC read via Netgalley.
What Americans are taught about the First World War amounts to something like: British, Germans, assassination, France, Russia, Czar, Zimmerman telegram, needed us to win, caused World War II.
It’s no surprise really that the closest we come to a National War Memorial for the First World War on the Washington DC Mall is the one for the locals. (It’s right across from the MLK memorial). It is not as big or awe striking as the memorials for the Korean, Vietnam, and WW II wars. In fact, the average person could quite easily be forgiven for thinking that it is dedicated to a person as opposed to honor dead.
The First World War is something that happens to people on Downton Abbey and other PBS shows. Sometimes you might see something about on the History or Discovery channels, when they are taking breaks from pawning and fishing.
The reason why I say this is because I doubt I am the right person to review this book. I say this despite the fact that I always make it a point to visit the WW I memorial in DC, that Owen and Graves are two of my favorite poets, and I love Blackadder.
Empires focuses on the Eastern front of the war, an area that in both Europe and the US undoubtedly needs more attention. It is a military work, tactics and other related issues are discussed.
And because of this I found the writing to be rather dry.
It is an important book, simply because in the discussion of the battles the reader can see the ground work not only for the coming generation’s conflict but also for what happened in the 1990s and 2000s. It does deepen the understanding of a war that many of us see as trench warfare only on the Western front.
Yet, I couldn’t help wishing the writing was a tad livelier.
I can’t speak for whether the conclusions reached are good ones. Buttar is very clear when he is dealing with a debatable issue, and while his conclusions seem sound, I am not in a position to judge. I found the “cast list” at the front of the book to be rather helpful in keeping track of names. Despite the dry tone, there was some personal detail about key players to make up for it. He does also show how the Franco-Prussian war influenced tactics and the army structure. Despite the dry tone, I learned a great deal.
It’s a dry book, but highly recommended for those who wish to learn more about the Great War or those who wish to learn. It would also make a good present for those interested in the development of warfare as well as military history. Like my brother.
Crossposted at Booklikes.
What Americans are taught about the First World War amounts to something like: British, Germans, assassination, France, Russia, Czar, Zimmerman telegram, needed us to win, caused World War II.
It’s no surprise really that the closest we come to a National War Memorial for the First World War on the Washington DC Mall is the one for the locals. (It’s right across from the MLK memorial). It is not as big or awe striking as the memorials for the Korean, Vietnam, and WW II wars. In fact, the average person could quite easily be forgiven for thinking that it is dedicated to a person as opposed to honor dead.
The First World War is something that happens to people on Downton Abbey and other PBS shows. Sometimes you might see something about on the History or Discovery channels, when they are taking breaks from pawning and fishing.
The reason why I say this is because I doubt I am the right person to review this book. I say this despite the fact that I always make it a point to visit the WW I memorial in DC, that Owen and Graves are two of my favorite poets, and I love Blackadder.
Empires focuses on the Eastern front of the war, an area that in both Europe and the US undoubtedly needs more attention. It is a military work, tactics and other related issues are discussed.
And because of this I found the writing to be rather dry.
It is an important book, simply because in the discussion of the battles the reader can see the ground work not only for the coming generation’s conflict but also for what happened in the 1990s and 2000s. It does deepen the understanding of a war that many of us see as trench warfare only on the Western front.
Yet, I couldn’t help wishing the writing was a tad livelier.
I can’t speak for whether the conclusions reached are good ones. Buttar is very clear when he is dealing with a debatable issue, and while his conclusions seem sound, I am not in a position to judge. I found the “cast list” at the front of the book to be rather helpful in keeping track of names. Despite the dry tone, there was some personal detail about key players to make up for it. He does also show how the Franco-Prussian war influenced tactics and the army structure. Despite the dry tone, I learned a great deal.
It’s a dry book, but highly recommended for those who wish to learn more about the Great War or those who wish to learn. It would also make a good present for those interested in the development of warfare as well as military history. Like my brother.
Crossposted at Booklikes.
ashley_schulte's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very interesting and detailed book about a subject that I did not know a lot about, what led up to WWI and how the eastern countries of the world participated. This book honestly took me quite a long time to get through and this was due to a few reasons. I enjoyed reading it, but it was just so detailed that I could only do so much in each sitting. It was a lot to take in, so many names, so many battles. All of it was completely new to me and I found it all fascinating. I cannot say that I will remember the vast majority of this book with its thousands of facts, but I can at least walk away from reading it having a better understanding of World War I and the players that are not as widely focused on. This book will give you a very detailed look of what went on away from the main focus of most history books in WWI.
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