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Crowns In The Gutter: A Strategic Analysis of World War I
(From the Dust Jacket): The First World War unleashed forces unforeseen by long-ruling European monarchs, who thought this war would be like so many other in the continent's tortured history: a brief squabble resolved by trading a few provinces one way or the other. Instead, they reaped a cataclysm that destroyed dynasties, ruined economies, and brought about the personal end of at least 16,000,000 people. There is almost no problem in the modern world that cannot find its roots in this conflict.
Our image of the war generally is restrict to one of soul-numbing trench warfare. There was a plentitude of such fighting, but thought the war the leaders on both sides proved imaginative in seeing strategic, tactical, and technological solutions to the static nature of the fighting.
[This book] offers a detailed examination fo those proposed solutions, told white the context of the chronological progress of the war. All major and many minor battles are covered, including those on the oft-ignored Balkan and Ottoman fronts. The text is illustrated with more than 130 maps and refined with detailed discussions of tactical and technical developments, along with biographical sketches fo many key leaders. A large appendix describes the peripheral but important campaigns to conquer Germany's imperial possessions around the world.
Our image of the war generally is restrict to one of soul-numbing trench warfare. There was a plentitude of such fighting, but thought the war the leaders on both sides proved imaginative in seeing strategic, tactical, and technological solutions to the static nature of the fighting.
[This book] offers a detailed examination fo those proposed solutions, told white the context of the chronological progress of the war. All major and many minor battles are covered, including those on the oft-ignored Balkan and Ottoman fronts. The text is illustrated with more than 130 maps and refined with detailed discussions of tactical and technical developments, along with biographical sketches fo many key leaders. A large appendix describes the peripheral but important campaigns to conquer Germany's imperial possessions around the world.
- GenresMilitary History
302 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 13, 2018
This is really an amazing book, a practical clash-by-clash history of the action in all WWI battles, told chronologically. The book would be worth twice the price just for the WONDERFUL maps, each showing the action on a appropriate scale. I remember being taught at the War College that a discussion of a battle without a map is useless; this is such a wonderful set of maps that I will be turning to it for reference for years to come.
The book tells what happened in concise form, and does one thing really well: it presents the decisions of commanders in the context of their understanding and thought at the time. I think that is what the second half of the title means by a "strategic analysis". The book tells this whole story effectively in 300 pages, and manages to tell that story clearly and memorably.
Three caveats. (1) The book is very focused on the military evolution of the war, and while the broader context is discussed where relevant, this is not a political history of the war. (2) The author sometimes mentions controversies about events or commanders, but in general he picks his view of what happened and why to keep the narrative moving, not as an exploration of alternatives. If you are a fan or a critic of BEF commanders, you will find things to support or to argue with, but all Raicer will give you is his best judgement and an acknowledgement that some people feel differently. (3) This probably shouldn't be your first book about the Great War, but if might be a good second book after reading something that reflects your own interest first. Even if you dive right into Hew Strachan, this book is a very good adjunct, because it tells the flow of the war clearly and concisely.
In addition to the great maps, it offers a very modern bibliography of great books on the War, and also provides an interesting, unique, and useful set of time divisions for the war. I may replace my structure with his the next time I have a chance to teach a course on the Great War.
Very small complaints. While he has a broad perspective of the main "European" theaters of the war, including the Near East and deep Russia, he relegates the colonial wars to an appendix. I wish these had at least been referred to in the main narrative, since I think their context to the "World War" is at least in part how they influenced home front perspectives on the War. And his discussion of the impact/legacy of the war, while told in the same form as the military narrative, seems far too linear for the complexity of the impacts of this war.
This is a book that I think needs to be better known. It's not original primary scholarship, but it is a valuable contribution to those who need a very good understanding of "just what did happen after the Marne?" I expect this to stay on my bookshelf for a long time. (If only for those maps.)
The book tells what happened in concise form, and does one thing really well: it presents the decisions of commanders in the context of their understanding and thought at the time. I think that is what the second half of the title means by a "strategic analysis". The book tells this whole story effectively in 300 pages, and manages to tell that story clearly and memorably.
Three caveats. (1) The book is very focused on the military evolution of the war, and while the broader context is discussed where relevant, this is not a political history of the war. (2) The author sometimes mentions controversies about events or commanders, but in general he picks his view of what happened and why to keep the narrative moving, not as an exploration of alternatives. If you are a fan or a critic of BEF commanders, you will find things to support or to argue with, but all Raicer will give you is his best judgement and an acknowledgement that some people feel differently. (3) This probably shouldn't be your first book about the Great War, but if might be a good second book after reading something that reflects your own interest first. Even if you dive right into Hew Strachan, this book is a very good adjunct, because it tells the flow of the war clearly and concisely.
In addition to the great maps, it offers a very modern bibliography of great books on the War, and also provides an interesting, unique, and useful set of time divisions for the war. I may replace my structure with his the next time I have a chance to teach a course on the Great War.
Very small complaints. While he has a broad perspective of the main "European" theaters of the war, including the Near East and deep Russia, he relegates the colonial wars to an appendix. I wish these had at least been referred to in the main narrative, since I think their context to the "World War" is at least in part how they influenced home front perspectives on the War. And his discussion of the impact/legacy of the war, while told in the same form as the military narrative, seems far too linear for the complexity of the impacts of this war.
This is a book that I think needs to be better known. It's not original primary scholarship, but it is a valuable contribution to those who need a very good understanding of "just what did happen after the Marne?" I expect this to stay on my bookshelf for a long time. (If only for those maps.)
August 22, 2016
Very good read. This is how a book on WWI should be. No revisionist history here, just the facts.
May 16, 2019
This was a fantastic book, which should be read by anyone who saw the movie "Tolkien" or "Goodbye, Christopher Robin" or had family fight in WWI and felt they could not understand them or wished they understood them better. The follow-up book would be "Paris: 1919."
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews