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  1. Home
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  3. Anticipating Total War
  • Cited by 19
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
January 2013
Print publication year:
1999
Online ISBN:
9781139052511
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139052511
Subjects:
Area Studies, Military History, Twentieth Century European History, European History after 1450, History, European Studies
Series:
Publications of the German Historical Institute
Information

Book description

These essays explore the discourse on war in Germany and the United States between 1871 and 1914 - in the era bounded by the mid-century wars in Europe and North America and the First World War. The concept of 'total war', which was prefigured in aspects of the earlier conflicts and realized in 1914, provides the analytical focus. The essays reveal vigorous discussions of warfare in several forums - among soldiers, statesmen, women's groups and educators - on both sides of the Atlantic. Predictions of long, cataclysmic wars were not uncommon in these discussions, while the involvement of German and American soldiers in colonial warfare suggested that future combat would not spare civilians. Despite these 'anticipations of total war', virtually no one drew the practical implications in planning for war in the early twentieth century.

Reviews

"...this is a highly important collection of essays providing insights into the nineteenth century origins of the twentieth century standard of extreme, all-consuming, horrific warfare known as 'total war.'" The Journal of Military History

"...immense volume...The comparative format of this volume proves valuable." The Journal of American History

"This book will find its greatest audience among academics. Readers will find the essays well supported with a wide range of sources, as might be expected in a work that is itself somewhat broad." H-Net Reviews

"The project's intellectual and financial sponsors merit corresponding praise for expanding the scope of the remaining conferences to address total war in European and global contexts." The Journal of Modern History

"...these essays make important and original contributions to a historiography on the Great War that continues to evolve in exciting and promising new directions."| Technology and Culture

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