The pity of war / Niall Ferguson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ferguson, Niall

Contributor:

James Howard Weiss Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1914-1918.

Great Britain--History--20th century.

Great Britain.

History.

Physical Description:

xliii, 563 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Basic Books, [1999]

Summary:

For many Americans the First World War is the forgotten war: a war that seems to have fallen into an historical void between the Civil War and World War II. This is surprising given its profound significance to the United States. More than four million Americans were mobilized in 1917-18, of whom more than 100,000 were killed -- double the number who died in Vietnam. This was the first, bloody step on the road to globalism which would characterize our foreign policy for the rest of the twentieth century. Even American literature was transformed by the impact of the war on writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

Internationally, more than any other event, the First World War made the twentieth century what it was: It toppled the four great empires of the Old World and left a fifth -- the British -- mortgaged to the hilt. More than nine million men lost their lives, yet none of its stated objectives were met. Rather, it spawned seven decades of Communist rule in Russia, the rise of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, and the horror of the Holocaust. Now, as the century draws to a close, the time is right for a radical reassessment of the "Great War."

Contents:

1. The Myths of Militarism 1

2. Empires, Ententes and Edwardian Appeasement 31

3. Britain's War of Illusions 56

4. Arms and Men 82

5. Public Finance and National Security 105

6. The Last Days of Mankind: 28 June-4 August 1914 143

7. The August Days: The Myth of War Enthusiasm 174

8. The Press Gang 212

9. Economic Capability: The Advantage Squandered 248

10. Strategy, Tactics and the Net Body Count 282

11. 'Maximum Slaughter at Minimum Expense': War Finance 318

12. The Death Instinct: Why Men Fought 339

13. The Captor's Dilemma 367

14. How (not) to Pay for the War 395

Conclusion: Alternatives to Armageddon 433.

Notes:

Originally published: London : Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1998.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 517-541) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the James Howard Weiss Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

046505711X :

OCLC:

41124439