Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part One Germany, The United States, and Total War
- Part Two War and Society
- Part Three Memory and Anticipation: War and Culture
- 11 The American Debate over Modern War, 1871-1914
- 12 Whose War? Whose Nation?: Tensions in the Memory of the Franco-German War of 1870-1871
- 13 War Preparations and National Identity in Imperial Germany
- 14 Military Imagination in the United States, 1815-1917
- 15 Dreams and Nightmares: German Military Leadership and the Images of Future Warfare, 1871-1914
- 16 “A Calamity to Civilization”: Theodore Roosevelt and the Danger of War in Europe
- Part Four The Experience of War
- Index
15 - Dreams and Nightmares: German Military Leadership and the Images of Future Warfare, 1871-1914
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part One Germany, The United States, and Total War
- Part Two War and Society
- Part Three Memory and Anticipation: War and Culture
- 11 The American Debate over Modern War, 1871-1914
- 12 Whose War? Whose Nation?: Tensions in the Memory of the Franco-German War of 1870-1871
- 13 War Preparations and National Identity in Imperial Germany
- 14 Military Imagination in the United States, 1815-1917
- 15 Dreams and Nightmares: German Military Leadership and the Images of Future Warfare, 1871-1914
- 16 “A Calamity to Civilization”: Theodore Roosevelt and the Danger of War in Europe
- Part Four The Experience of War
- Index
Summary
a short-war illusion?
In August 1914 the generals of continental Europe's great powers led their armies into huge offensives in order to win a decisive strategic advantage over their opponents with one mighty blow. By mid-September, however, all these offensives had failed disastrously. What followed were four years of seemingly endless catastrophic warfare that, particularly since 1916, had turned into something akin to total war. When that war was over there were no real victors, at least as far as Europe was concerned. France and Great Britain, to be sure, could celebrate military victory. But almost like the losers, they had suffered catastrophic economic, financial, and demographic losses. Moreover, in the following decade they had to face political and social unrest as a result of the war effort, and their standings as world powers were mortally damaged. One thing was clear: After the “Great War” Europe would never be the same.
Why did that catastrophe happen? Why were Europe's military leaders, who prior to 1914 regarded themselves as the best professionals in the world, unable to prevent the disaster of a long war? These are questions that from the fall of 1914 up to the present day have been hotly debated among soldiers and historians.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Anticipating Total WarThe German and American Experiences, 1871–1914, pp. 343 - 376Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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