Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War Paperback – Illustrated, May 13, 2014

This is a well written book on how the First World War started by a noted historian of the Second World War. While alot of us are familiar with World War II, many are not familiar with the war before it. Without an understanding of what occurred then, it is hard to understand the reluctance of those nations trying to stop Hitler and others to resort to war without trying all other avenues first. European nations paid an astronomical cost in the first few months of this war and this book details this in great detail without going to into too much battle description in the grand sense instead keeping the view from the participants to make it more personal.This book also takes the reader away from the battlefields to show how the peoples of the nations involved in the war reacted over the 5 months discussed and how perspectives changed over the course of the victories and defeats that each nation dealt with. The author shows us the members of goverment along with their subjects dealing with changes imposed by the war always with the (hopeful) optimism that it will be over soon and all of the sufferring and loss will be justied by the outcome. As the reality of the duration of conflict starts to dawn on them, it is recognized as a battle of endurance for the nations involved.His concluding chapter is one that I think all those who think they 'know everything' about this period of time should read. With over a century having occurred since the events depicted in this book, there is a tendency for modern readers to think that they could have just stopped. The author looks at this prospect from the view of all of the major combatants as well as giving some foreshadowing of what was to come for the participants in the years both during and after the war. In this last chapter, he shows the governments of the nations involved looking if there is a way to end the fighting, but none of them willing to end it except with an advantage that justifies the cost inflicted. Since this was never going to happen, the fighting will continue.I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Max Hasting's books on World War II. He has lost none of his talent for relating these stories even with a change of wars being considered. Also, I would recommend this any readers of Barbara Tuchman's "Guns Of August". Her book written back in the 1960's was an eye-opening introduction to the same themes that are discussed in this book. This is a 50 year later successor to her book and belongs right beside it in any library of World War I.

This is a recent volume published to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I. The author covers the period from July to Christmas of 1914. It is a good companion to Margaret McMillan's The Road That Ended Peace.The book was interesting and informative. I think it was more thorough than Guns of August but in my opinion Tuchman was a better writer. The author provides a great deal of detail and makes excellent use of primary sources. The primary sources include not only the writings of politicians and generals but also letters and journal entries from the soldiers in the trenches. In addition to the narrative sections the author provides extensive analysis laced with criticism of the decisions made by the leadership. Hastings has many opinions which stand out in contrast to the general wisdom regarding the events of the war.A good example is his analysis of the start of the war. While Archduke Ferdinand was not popular with the leadership of Austria-Hungary they decided to use his assassination as an excuse to assert themselves and punish Serbia. When they turned to Germany for support they received a "blank check" to proceed against Serbia. From that point on there was going to be a war and the only question was who was going to be involved. The interlaced system of alliances between the European powers brought in Russia, France and Germany. Germany's decision to invade Belgium finalized England's decision to declare war on the side of France and Russia. The speech of Edward Grey to Parliament in favor of the declaration of war is a highlight of the book.The author places great emphasis on the difference between the first months of the war and the trench warfare associated with World War I. The first months were a war of maneuver which had battles whose casualties were greater than the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The details of the early battles read like a fantastic horror story. Hundreds of thousands of men marching and fighting and marching some more. Human and animal corpses litter the landscape interspersed with wounded men. Artillery ruled the battlefield and caused greater numbers of casualties during this war than bullets for the first and only time.While the Western Front is fairly well known the author's descriptions of the fighting between Austria-Hungary and Serbia and Russia are even more horrific. The Austro-Hungarian army was poorly equipped and full of units where the officers did not speak the same language as the troops. The troops were always short of ammunition and rations and surrendered in droves. Twice they invaded Serbia and twice they were pushed back into Bosnia. The author states that 62% of Serbians of military age were killed in the war.Reading about the "gentlemen" in their elaborate offices make the decisions that started the war and then reading the results of those decisions was for me the true horror of the war. Industrialized warfare brought a new level of destruction and suffering that only a very few could even imagine.

Focusing on just one year of the war was refreshing. In my personal studies I find 1914 to be the most interesting year of WWI to research.The notations are all at the back of the book in a format I don’t recall seeing too often, but it works. As I read I kept looking for the reference notes. They are at the back of the book with hyperlink to the corresponding passage. No footnotes or note numbers on the actual page.Wonderful pictures also at the back - many I had not seen in many years reading and researching the topic.Writing style, generally fast moving and enjoyable.

This book is excellent! This book is a rare thing. It really does cast a new light on an old subject. This book is typical Max Hastings. This book is very well researched. He mixes raw statistics in with personal accounts of the battle from first hand accounts. He covers both western and eastern theaters in the book. Most books tend to forget the conflict in the east. The accounts of conflict in the Serbia is really eye opening. You get a new feel for those bloody months of 1914 from August to December.Previous books on 1914 focus on the assassination and the resulting politics. People tend to forget the mess from the clashes of the Armies after the politicians failed. Max Hastings creates that time in this book. As you read it you will be shocked. It is almost like it is new information. The huge casualties started almost instantly in the first weeks of August. The volume of the casualties is mind boggling. The velocity of conflict is also something to behold when you remember most of the people walked to war. You can see how the errors of the early months of the war set the stage for the following part of the war. The average reader will gain a new appreciation of those five months.

This is another of Max Hastings documentary works which has great details of how WW1 began and how the year 1914 ended for all participants. It has more depth than a much earlier book about the start of WW1-Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August". This book is for those who are seriously interested in history but is still very readable.

It is an absorbing account of what happened during those fateful years and like all Max Hastings books it is superb.

Al solito molto ben scritto e interessante, solo un po' sbilanciato sulle "imprese" degli inglesi, ma essendo lui inglese la cosa si capisce.

In a way, Hastings' brilliant study is a reponse to Christopher Clark’s "The Sleepwalkers". Just as Clark he puts his (first) main emphasis on trying to determine the causes of the First World War and the circumstances of its outbreak. However, other than Clark he emphasizes the historical and political significance of the German quest for a world domination - just continuing the "Fischer controversy" of the 1960s.On the other hand, Hastings tends to downplay the French and Russian role in the July crisis, for instance when writing: "The Baltic yachting trip of Poincaré and Viviani probably had little or no influence upon the course of history." He does admit the "massive difficulty about this Franco-Russioan summit", though, "because no minutes were kept, and few relevant state papers survive." I believe Poincarés role in the antecedent narratives of conflict in 1914 still has to be clarified.In Clark's view statesmen were trapped “within narratives of their own making”. And, in the Russian narrative, for example, “the entire history of Russia’s sponsorship of Serbian expansionism” was “elided from view.”The major strength of the book, however, is its close attention to detail, the accounts from a multitude of contemporary witnesses of seven nations, excerpts from diaries, letters and the like:"the testimony of humble folk ... who became its victims."

Excelente relato de la Gran Guerra con contenido riguroso en lo histórico y con prosa amena y de fácil lectura, incluso para el lector cuya lengua materna no sea el inglés. No es una historia de la Primera Guerra Mundial al uso, sino más bien de cómo se llegó a ese drama, la causas políticas, la guerra en sí y los dramas y calamidades de los que en ella combatieron o que la vivieron como civiles. Totalmente recomdable.