Super-relaxing.
YIKES. These maps STRESS ME OUT. The converging arrows! There are so many maps in this book (Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War
Even scarier, I understand them.
No, but seriously. I can’t put it down. I wrote on Facebook:
“I’m reading a book that breaks down every battle in 1914 in WWI in exhaustive detail. Who did what, whose flank was exposed, which regiment hid in the bushes, the horses, the messengers, the telephone lines, the movement through Belgium, the tactical strategies, the frantic disorganized withdrawals. I’m 300 pages into the book and we’re only in August 1914, so that’s the level of detail. I’m at the point where I feel like I could successfully command an Army. I fell asleep last night with the book open beside me, showing the collision of France/Britain/Germany in the battle in Mons. I felt like I knew every canal and every bridge and was thinking scornfully to myself, ‘Y’all might want to destroy those bridges, not just guard them…. I don’t know. Just an idea.’ I try to live up to my nickname Special Ops. But I woke up this morning and the first thing I saw was some scary war-map from 1914. I need a vacation.”
My nerd-goal is to complete the book by June 28, 2014, the 100-year anniversary of the assassination MacGuffin that started it all.
Here’s the book.
Oooh, this looks good, although I must confess maps confound me. I look and look and … nothing. I can picture better reading descriptions, if that makes any sense.
Rachel – it’s excellent. Max Hastings is a really good writer and historian – using sources that are not the usual (he has dug up people’s diaries and regular soldiers’ letters home – which are often more honest than the memoirs of the commanders, who were trying to save their reputations, etc.)
He goes into so much detail with every battle that I found the maps essential. I would be like, “Wait … so the curve in the river had a bridge? And where were the British hiding again?”
And then boom, you turn the page, and there’s a map of the area, with all of these giant different colored arrows – showing the Germans advancing, the French advancing the other way, the British swirling around in the back … it’s insane. Stresses me OUT.
But the prose is really good – I’ve heard that his book about the fall of Germany in WWII is excellent – I will definitely be reading more!
and when I get directions to a place, I need them written out. Maps don’t do it for me, I get confused! My friend who went to Memphis with me is totally the opposite – she needs to see the map – so we would switch off as navigator, and I would have my written-out list of directions, and she would have her highlighted map, and we were all set.
But this book gets so involved with the French landscape and other places – it’s so granular, the book – so the maps were a good way to get the wider picture!
Oh, that sounds as a very interesting book! Do you have the title of the book for me, it’s ‘1914’, right? I can’t find it in your post.
Can you see the Amazon banner at the bottom? Sorry – it’s showing up for me. Maybe it’s not loading for you.
The name of the book is Catastrophe 1914, by Max Hastings.
Very good!
Maps are essential to understanding what happened, and why. The more the better, in any military history book.
Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August covers the first act of the Great War, and was an unexpected best-seller in 1962, mostly because she was such an engaging writer. Not enough maps in my paperback version, though.
IMHO, it’s still the Great War, since the world we live in now was largely created back then.
Militarily — million-man armies that could survive millions of casualties, machine guns, high-explosive artillery, tanks, bomber and fighter aircraft, submarines, etc.
Politically — the Russian Revolution, the demise of most European absolute monarchies, the emergence of the USA as a decisive world power, the seeds of the Second World War, most of Ireland finally getting free of Britain, several new countries in the Middle East, women’s suffrage in the USA and Britain, etc.
In your wheelhouse, there’s lots of literature, during and after the Great War, that was obviously affected by the catastrophe. And films, too!
If you ever get the free time to visit the northern France battlefields, do it. There are still trenches, shell holes, and ruined villages remaining, as well as too many sad cemeteries.
Makes the maps real.
Paths of Glory is a great WWI film! A great film in general. The sheer insanity of it all.
I loved Barbara Tuchman’s book – I read it years ago. Max Hastings acknowledges her accomplishment in his introduction. I should re-read it, I remember loving it.
I’d love to buy it but I’m a cheapskate and prefer Kindle versions. Can you put a link up to the Kindle version as well? It will be a win for us both.
Here’s the Kindle link! 12 bucks!
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/build-links/individual/get-html.html?ie=UTF8&asin=B00C4BA4C2&marketplace=amazon
Ha! I need written directions, too. Though eventually I could draw you a (very crude) map if I knew the way well enough. It’s some sort of bizarre spatial deficit. Of course, maps are needed when describing a battle, it just takes me many, many page flips between the text and the map before I can figure out exactly what’s going on, so I can sympathize with your stress.
I also have a gap in my World War I knowledge, which is funny since it basically redrew the map of Europe and the Middle East. These maps http://www.the-map-as-history.com/demos/tome03/ are helpful as regards the larger picture.
// it just takes me many, many page flips between the text and the map before I can figure out exactly what’s going on //
That’s it exactly!
Wow – that animated map is great. Thanks.
That whole time period is fascinating to me – certainly from the perspective of the Russian Revolution, but also from the upheaval in all of the other countries, Allied and not – the social/industrial/political revolutions going on – which really made the whole thing possible, and also made the whole thing as horrendous as it was.
About 10 years ago I was cast as Gertrude Bell in a short play about her life – she was the sort of female “Lawrence of Arabia”, who was instrumental in creating the borders of Iraq (Thanks for nothing, Gert!) But she was similar to TE Lawrence in that she fell in love with the culture – and the travel – she was “sand mad” – fluent in Arabic and other languages – and was really the “woman on the ground” who actually knew people and could put together meetings/negotiations, when it came time to divide up those territories. She’s buried in Baghdad. I did some great research for that role – there are some good books out there about her. She intersected with every major political figure of the time.
Thanks! The maps are quite zoomable in the Kindle version and keep their orientation correctly.
devtob , You said everything I was thinking. I was ranting on twitter earlier because certain politicians have been denying the Iraq invasion had nothing to do with the current violence in Iraq. I basically said that would be like saying WWI had nothing to do with WWII. Of course the roots of this violence go back even further, to the crazy arbitrary borders drawn up by the Great Powers after the war and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Studying the lead up to WWI was one of my favorite courses in college. (It’s all Bismarck’s fault)
Both Armageddon (fall of Germany) and Nemesis (fall of Japan) are excellent.
Dan – I’ve ordered Armageddon – I have heard great things – I’m such a fan of his stuff now.
Now you’ve gone and done it, Sheila. I’ve checked Catastrophe 1914 out of the library. Also, Guns of August.
Nice!!