OFFICIAL HISTORIES
Neither Russia nor Turkey published official histories, the state structure of both empires having been devastated by the war and subsequent civil war. Nor is there an American official narrative history, though the United States government produced a number of volumes about specific aspects of the war. The most important official histories are the British, French, German, Austrian and Australian. The French history, though detailed, is desiccated in tone; the most useful volume is the tenth, divided into two parts, which contains the order of battle and records the movements and changes of command of divisions and higher formations. The Austrian official history also includes valuable orders of battle and provides a narrative less clinical than the French. The sixteen volumes of the German official history of operations on land was written in a detached general-staff style but is an indispensable record of the German army’s activities; a companion series of informal battle narratives (e.g. Reichsarchiv, Ypern, Gorlice) is also useful. The British official series comprehends extended narratives of army operations in all theatres, a naval and an air force history, some technical volumes (medicine, transportation) and a subordinate and extremely detailed set of orders of battle, absolutely necessary to an understanding of Britain’s part in the war. The Australian official historian, C. W. E. Bean, collected personal reminiscences from many participants. His series of volumes, as a result, has a human dimension none of the other official histories achieves, and anticipates in its approach that successfully adopted in the magnificent American official narrative of the Second World War. The titles of these official histories are as follows:
J. Edmonds, Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1914–18, London, 1925–48, and companion volumes on operations in Italy, Macedonia, Egypt and Palestine, the Dardanelles, Persia and East and West Africa by other authors. The naval history, Naval Operations, London, 1920–31, was written by J. Corbett and H. Newbolt. The aviation volumes are those of W. Raleigh and H. Jones, The War in the Air, Oxford, 1922–37.
Etat-major de L’armée, Les Armées françaises dans la grande guerre, Paris, 1922–39 Reichsarchiv, Der Weltkrieg, Berlin, 1925–39
Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung, Österreich-Ungarns Letzter Krieg, 1914–18, Vienna, 1930–8
C. E. W. Bean, Australia in the War of 1914–18, Sydney, 1921–43
General Histories
There are few satisfactory general histories of the war, perhaps because of the miseries and rancours it left behind. The losers preferred to forget, while even among the victors there was little enthusiasm for recalling the events which had literally decimated their male populations. The British, who suffered proportionately least of the combatant great powers, produced the most successful general accounts. Theirs and others include:
J. Edmonds, A Short History of World War I, Oxford, 1951, a brief but comprehensive operational survey.
C. Falls, The First World War, London, 1960, incisive and compact.
M. Ferro, The Great War 1914–18, London, 1973, the first general history with a philosophical and cultural dimension.
A. J. P. Taylor, The First World War: An Illustrated History, London, 1963, characteristically succinct.
H. Herwig, The First World War: Germany and Austria 1914–18, London, 1997, is wider than its title suggests and surveys much modern scholarship.
Professor Hew Strachan’s Oxford History, in press (two volumes), is expected to supplant C. M. R. F. Cruttwell, A History of the Great War, Oxford, 1934, dated but splendidly written.
Origins
The peremptory transition from an apparently profound peace to violent general war in a few mid-summer weeks in 1914 continues to defy attempts at explanation. Historians, after abandoning efforts to assign war guilt, turned first to an examination of causes, which proved almost as contentious, eventually to an analysis of circumstances.
The bedrock of all discussion remains L. Albertini’s The Origins of the War of 1914 (3 volumes), Oxford, 1952–7, which provides a detailed chronology of the crisis and excerpts from the most important documents. A more recent and carefully balanced analysis of circumstances is provided by J. Joll, 1914: The Unspoken Assumptions, London, 1984. Essential works on the unfolding of the crisis in each of the major combatant states are: I. Geiss, Juli 1914, Munich, 1965; J. Gooch, Army, State and Society in Italy, 1870–1915, N.Y., 1989; J. Keiger, France and the Origins of the First World War, N.Y., 1983; S. Williamson, Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War, N.Y., 1991; and Z. Steiner, Britain and the Origins of the First World War, N.Y. 1977, which is particularly concerned with British official diplomacy. F. Fischer, in Griff nach der Weltmacht, Düsseldorf, 1961, and Krieg der Illusionen, Düsseldorf, 1969, controversially revived the issue of Germany’s war guilt. Both, though causing outrage in Germany at the time of their publication, remain essential texts.
Two books on the mood of pre-war Europe are vital: M. Eksteins, Rites of Spring, Boston, 1989, and R. Wohl, The Generation of 1914, Cambridge, Mass., 1979.
War Plans
In The Schlieffen Plan, N.Y., 1959, G. Ritter dissected the texts of the German chief of staff which launched his army on its disastrous campaign the year after his death; it is perhaps the single most important book ever published on the First World War. Valuable commentaries are supplied by G. Tunstall, in Planning for War Against Russia and Serbia, N.Y., 1993, A. Bucholz, Moltke, Schlieffen and Prussian War Planning, N.Y., 1991, D. Herrmann, The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War, Princeton, 1996, and the essays in P. Kennedy, The War Plans of the Great Powers, London, 1979.
Conduct of the War
The strategy of the war, as distinct from planning for it, has generated little scholarship. Its tactics, on the other hand, have always stimulated investigation, perhaps because a successful tactical solution was perceived to be the principal strategic necessity, particularly on the Western Front. In recent years a new generation of British, Australian and Canadian scholars have revived enquiry. Three leading writers are T. Travers’ The Killing Ground, London, 1987 and How the War Was Won, London, 1992, P. Griffith,Battle Tactics of the Western Front, London, 1992 and Forward into Battle, Rambsbury, 1990 and H. Herwig The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914–18, London, 1997. None achieves the incisiveness of the British ex-official historian, G. C. Wynne, who, in If Germany Attacks, London, 1940, produced an analysis of British and French adaptations of their methods of the offensive against entrenched positions and of the German response which has not been surpassed. A valuable insight into the nature of trench warfare on the ‘inactive’ sectors is supplied by T. Ashworth in Trench Warfare: The Live and Let Live System, London, 1980. Three important books on the war’s generalship, casting much light on its strategy, are: R. Asprey, The German High Command at War, N.Y., 1991, M. Kitchen, The Silent Dictatorship: The Politics of the German High Command under Hindenburg and Ludendorff, London, 1976 and C. Barnett, The Swordbearers, London, 1963.
Armed Forces
There is a rich literature on the armed forces of the First World War, particularly on the British army. Among the best are: P. Simkins, Kitchener’s Army, Manchester, 1986, a scholarly labour of love on the war’s largest volunteer army, and I. Beckett and K. Simpson, A Nation in Arms, Manchester, 1985. Good books on the French army include D. Porch, The March to the Marne, Cambridge, 1981, L. Smith, Between Mutiny and Obedience, Princeton, 1994, and R. Challener, The French Theory of the Nation in Arms, N.Y., 1955; E. Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen, London, 1977, has illuminating passages on the acceptance of conscription by rural France before the war. G. Pedroncini, Les mutineries de 1917, Paris, 1967, is still definitive. B. Menning, Bayonets Before Bullets: The Imperial Russian Army, 1861-1914, Bloomington, 1994 is outstanding and is complemented by A. Wildman, The End of the Russian Imperial Army, Princeton, 1980. G. Rothenburg, The Army of Franz Joseph, West Lafayette, 1976, is the best book in English on the Austro-Hungarians but J. Lucas, Fighting Troops of the Austro-Hungarian Army, Speldhurst, 1987, is packed with useful detail. There is still no good book in English on the German army. A Millett and W. Williamson’s Military Effectiveness, I, Boston, 1988, has excellent chapters on national armies. J. Gooch, Army, State and Society in Italy, 1870–1915, N.Y., 1989, is excellent and D. Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj, London, 1994, on the Indian Army, is outstanding. Nothing comprehensive has yet been written in English on the Ottoman army of 1914–18.
There are several excellent studies of the German navy, including J. Steinberg, Yesterday’s Deterrent, London, 1965, and H. Herwig, Luxury Fleet, London, 1980, and The German Naval Officer Corps, Oxford, 1973. On the Royal Navy, A Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, 5 vols, London, 1961–70, remains the classic authority. M. Vego, Austro-Hungarian Naval Policy 1904–14, London, 1996, is interesting on the preliminaries to the Austro-Italian naval war in the Adriatic.
The technical literature of air fighting is considerable but there are few books of worth on air forces. An interesting study is D. Winter, The First of the Few: Fighter Pilots of the First World War, London, 1982.
Battles and Campaigns
An early and now largely forgotten campaign history remains invaluable on the subject: S. Tyng, The Campaign of the Marne, Oxford, 1935. The best book on the contemporaneous battle in the east is D. Showalter, Tannenberg, Hamden, 1991. N. Stone, The Eastern Front 1914–17, N.Y., 1975, is indispensable. Important books on battles on the Western Front are: E. Spears, Liaison 1914: A Narrative of the Great Retreat and Prelude to Victory, London, 1939, on the Nivelle offensive; M. Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme, London, 1971, and The Kaiser’s Battle, London, 1978, on the opening of the German offensives of 1918; A. Horne, The Price of Victory, London, 1962, a classic account of Verdun; A. McKee, Vimy Ridge, London, 1962; and L. Wolff, In Flanders Fields, London, 1958, an impassioned account of Passchendaele. C. Falls, Caporetto, London, 1966, and A. Palmer, The Gardeners of Salonika, London, 1965, are the best studies of the Italian and Macedonian fronts in English. Gallipoli has produced an enormous literature, often of high quality. Good general books are: R. Rhodes James, Gallipoli, London, 1965, G. Cassar,The French and the Dardanelles, London, 1971, and A. Moorehead, Gallipoli, London, 1956, dated but highly readable. Useful books on the outer theatres of war are C. Falls, Armageddon 1918, London, 1964 (Palestine), A. Barker, The Neglected War: Mesopotamia 1914–18, London, 1967, and B. Farwell, The Great War in Africa, London, 1987. A compendium, History of the First World War, London, 1969–71, issued by Purnell in parts and edited by B. Pitt and P. Young, forming eight volumes, contains accounts of all the war’s episodes, some by leading scholars. It is a valuable source, particularly for the more obscure campaigns (e.g. Tsingtao, the Caucasus). C. Ellis, The Transcaspian Episode, London, 1963, is a brilliant monograph on British intervention in South Russia in 1918. Allied intervention in Russia and on the military aspects of the Russian revolution and civil war are covered in J. Wheeler-Bennett, Brest-Litovsk: The Forgotten Peace, London, 1966, E. Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War, N.Y., 1989, R. Luckett, The White Generals, N.Y. 1971, J. Bradley, Allied Intervention in Russia, London, 1968, P. Kencz, Civil War in South Russia, N.Y., 1977 and M. Carley,Revolution and Intervention, N.Y. 1983.
Particular aspects of the naval war are well described in: J. Goldrick, The King’s Ships Were at Sea: The War in the North Sea, August, 1914 – February 1915, Annapolis, 1984; P. Halpern, The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1914-18, London, 1987, G. Bennet, Coronel and the Falklands, N.Y., 1962, and Cowan’s War: The Story of British Naval Operations in the Baltic, 1918-20, London, 1964, and J. Terraine, Business in Great Waters, London, 1989, the best general account of the U-boat campaign. Among the enormous number of books on Jutland the following should be noted: N. Campbell, Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting, London, 1986 and A. Gordon, The Rules of the Game, London, 1996.
Politics and Economics
Among notable books on the politics and economics of the war by academic writers are: V. Berghahn, Germany and the Approach of War in 1914, N.Y., 1973, G. Feldman, Arms, Industry and Labor in Germany, 1914–18, Princeton, 1966, D. French, British Strategy and War Aims, London, 1986, J. Galantai, Hungary in the First World War, Budapest, 1989, M. Geyer, Deutsche Rüstungspolitik, Frankfurt, 1984, P. Guinn, British Strategy and Politics, 1914–18, Oxford, 1965 and Z. Zeman, The Break-up of the Habsburg Empire, London, 1961.
Culture and Society
French scholars have recently made notable contributions to the social and cultural history of the war. They include J.-J. Becker and S. Audouin-Rouzeau, Les sociétés européennes et la guerre de 1914-18, Paris, 1990, J-J Becker et al, Guerres et Cultures 1914–18, Paris, 1994, J.-J. Becker, La France en guerre, 1914–18, Paris, 1988, and J.-J. Becker, The Great War and the French People, Leamington Spa, 1985. Becker’s English collaborator, J. Winter, has edited, with W. Wall, The Upheaval of War: Family, Work and Welfare in Europe, 1914–18, Cambridge, 1988. His Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History, Cambridge, 1995, is a moving essay on the efforts made by soldiers and civilian communities to bear, rationalise and commemorate the griefs the war caused. More literary, and now one of the most famous of all Great War books, is Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, Oxford, 1975, a study of the English literature, particularly novels and memoirs. An older but still valuable French equivalent is J. Norton Cru, Témoins, new edition, Nancy, 1993. Two important books on the German experience are L. Moyer, Victory Must Be Ours, London, 1995, and R. Whalen, Bitter Wounds: German Victims of the Great War, Ithaca, 1984. In The Myriad Faces of War, Cambridge, 1986, Trevor Wilson has constructed a multi-faceted portrait of the British war experience. An interesting American perspective is E. Leed, No Man’s Land: Combat and Identity in World War I, Cambridge, 1979.
Biography
The military leaders of the First World War have found few retrospective admirers. This increasingly seems unfair. They were men presented with an almost insuperable problem – how to break a strong fortified front with weak, indeed inadequate means – and none was any much worse a general than another. An interesting collective portrait is presented by Correlli Barnett in The Swordbearers, London, 1963; his subjects are Moltke the Younger, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Commander of the Grand Fleet, Pétain and Ludendorff. Basil Liddell Hart’s sympathetic biography ofFoch: Man of Orleans, 1931, stands the test of time. So does J. Wheeler-Bennett’s Life of Hindenburg: the Wooden Titan, London, 1936. D. Goodspeed is excellent on Ludendorff, London, 1966. Haig remains an enigma, an efficient military technician deficient in human feeling. John Terraine supplies a partisan defence of his achievements in Haig: the Educated Soldier, London, 1963; a more sceptical biography, emphasising the less rational side of his character, is by G. De Groot, Douglas Haig, London, 1988; also to be noted is Haig’s Command by D. Winter, London, 1991. The Private Papers of Douglas Haig, edited by R. Blake, 1952, is indispensable. So, too, is Philip Magnus on Kitchener, N.Y. 1959. D. Smythe, Pershing, Bloomington, 1986, provides the best biography of the General of the (American) Armies. R. Holmes has written an excellent biography of Sir John French in The Little Field Marshal, London, 1981. Good biographies of British admirals are provided by R. Mackay, Fisher of Kilverstone, Oxford, 1973, A. Temple Patterson, Jellicoe, London, 1969, and S. Roskill, Earl Beatty, London, 1980.