- Hardcover: 391 pages
- Publisher: Random House (NY) (Dec 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1400066719
- ISBN-13: 978-1400066711
- Product Dimensions: 15.6 x 3.2 x 24.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 488,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Marne, 1914
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Product Description
It is one of the essential events of military history, a cataclysmic encounter that prevented a quick German victory in World War I and changed the course of two wars and the world. Now, for the first time in a generation, here is a bold new account of the Battle of the Marne. A landmark work by a distinguished scholar, The Marne, 1914 gives, for the first time, all sides of the story. In remarkable detail, and with exclusive information based on newly unearthed documents, Holger H. Herwig superbly re-creates the dramatic battle, revealing how the German force was foiled and years of brutal trench warfare were made inevitable.
Herwig brilliantly reinterprets Germany’s aggressive “Schlieffen Plan”–commonly considered militarism run amok–as a carefully crafted, years-in-the-making design to avoid a protracted war against superior coalitions. He also paints a new portrait of the run-up to the Marne: the Battle of the Frontiers, long thought a coherent assault but really a series of haphazard engagements that left “heaps of corpses,” France demoralized, Belgium in ruins, and Germany emboldened to take Paris.
Finally, Herwig puts in dazzling relief the Battle of the Marne itself: the French resolve to win, which included the exodus of 100,000 people from Paris (where even pigeons were placed under state control in case radio communications broke down), the crucial lack of coordination between Germany’s First and Second Armies, and the fateful “day of rest” taken by the Third Army. He provides revelatory new facts about the all-important order of retreat by Germany’s Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hentsch, previously an event hardly documented and here freshly reconstructed from diary excerpts.
Herwig also provides stunning cameos of all the important players: Germany’s Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke, progressively despairing and self-pitying as his plans go awry; his rival, France’s Joseph Joffre, seemingly weak but secretly unflappable and steely; and Commander of the British Expeditionary Force John French, arrogant, combative, and mercurial.
The Marne, 1914 puts into context the battle’s rich historical significance: how it turned the war into a four-year-long fiasco that taught Europe to accept a new form of barbarism and stoked the furnace for the fires of World War II. Revelatory and riveting, this will be the new source on this seminal event.
Herwig brilliantly reinterprets Germany’s aggressive “Schlieffen Plan”–commonly considered militarism run amok–as a carefully crafted, years-in-the-making design to avoid a protracted war against superior coalitions. He also paints a new portrait of the run-up to the Marne: the Battle of the Frontiers, long thought a coherent assault but really a series of haphazard engagements that left “heaps of corpses,” France demoralized, Belgium in ruins, and Germany emboldened to take Paris.
Finally, Herwig puts in dazzling relief the Battle of the Marne itself: the French resolve to win, which included the exodus of 100,000 people from Paris (where even pigeons were placed under state control in case radio communications broke down), the crucial lack of coordination between Germany’s First and Second Armies, and the fateful “day of rest” taken by the Third Army. He provides revelatory new facts about the all-important order of retreat by Germany’s Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hentsch, previously an event hardly documented and here freshly reconstructed from diary excerpts.
Herwig also provides stunning cameos of all the important players: Germany’s Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke, progressively despairing and self-pitying as his plans go awry; his rival, France’s Joseph Joffre, seemingly weak but secretly unflappable and steely; and Commander of the British Expeditionary Force John French, arrogant, combative, and mercurial.
The Marne, 1914 puts into context the battle’s rich historical significance: how it turned the war into a four-year-long fiasco that taught Europe to accept a new form of barbarism and stoked the furnace for the fires of World War II. Revelatory and riveting, this will be the new source on this seminal event.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
not always engaging. The research behind The Marne is impressive. This is probably the most detailed overarching account of the first month of the Great War that exists. The title is a tad misleading, for the book covers the bitter opening battles along the entire Western Front, encompassing the actions of all four armies fighting in August and September 1914. For a largely academic volume, the author does not ignore the human (and inhuman) element - the horrors of battle and the 'German atrocities'.
At times the narrative becomes bogged down with the movements and manoeuvres of armies, however. Corps X, division Y, gaps and flanks which may be good for serious military historians but rather confuse the more general reader. That's not helped by the maps, some of which have reproduced rather poorly. Also the photographic selection is very limited: the only images from the actual campaign show destruction of the Liège forts and devastated Louvain; not one photograph of the actual Marne campaign!
With these reservations in mind, this is an impressive addition to our understanding of the first weeks of the 1914 campaign, but for human drama, Barbara Tuchmann's August 1914 still stands supreme after five decades.
At times the narrative becomes bogged down with the movements and manoeuvres of armies, however. Corps X, division Y, gaps and flanks which may be good for serious military historians but rather confuse the more general reader. That's not helped by the maps, some of which have reproduced rather poorly. Also the photographic selection is very limited: the only images from the actual campaign show destruction of the Liège forts and devastated Louvain; not one photograph of the actual Marne campaign!
With these reservations in mind, this is an impressive addition to our understanding of the first weeks of the 1914 campaign, but for human drama, Barbara Tuchmann's August 1914 still stands supreme after five decades.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Not having read any other works on the subject makes it difficult to compare. So my impression is good, the work appears authorative and is in general an easy read given that there is laid out a lot of detail. The slight downside is to do with the detail, as this part of the war was all about manoeuvre and position, a lot of detail is given as to who moved what when and where. There are several maps showing this, but given the level of detail described, I think more accompanying maps would have helped.
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is quite a superficial book, marked by a 'snappy' prose style and amazingly dogmatic claims that are, to say the least, debatable (e.g. the author claims he can state categorically on the basis of his research, exactly what a German victory in the war would have meant). Wow.
He also litters his writing with deeply tendentious adjectives -and adverbs. People he doesn't like (usually British)are usually described as 'speaking hysterically' or 'prattling'. Wow. Was he there? seems not. Look elsewhere for good writing on this topic that is also grounded in actual historical ability.
He also litters his writing with deeply tendentious adjectives -and adverbs. People he doesn't like (usually British)are usually described as 'speaking hysterically' or 'prattling'. Wow. Was he there? seems not. Look elsewhere for good writing on this topic that is also grounded in actual historical ability.
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