+ Follow

• 844 views

If you are a reader of history, rather than a true student of history with a fixed compass for study, and for some reason you begin to wonder about World War I, read this book just after Barbara Tuchma

If you are a reader of history, rather than a true student of history with a fixed compass for study, and for some reason you begin to wonder about World War I, read this book just after Barbara Tuchman’s Guns of August. Tuchman does a wonderful job of introducing the reader to the world just before the Great War, with the rise of anarchy as social movement, the economic status of the various states, the mind set of the English, French, Germans, Austrians and Americans. She does a wonderful job of setting the stage for the war that changed the world. Once you have that under your belt, read The Dreadnought. Massie looks at the British Navy which fell into a competition with the German need for a world class fleet. As an island, England depended on its Navy for the military control of its fate, a method that had worked well for several hundred years. In nearly pure idolization and jealousy of the hegemony of the British, Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm began his own arms race to build a Navy that had been largely neglected by the almost landlocked nation. This so alarmed the English that they retaliated by increasing the number, efficiency and effectiveness of their own fleet, largely through the efforts of Jacky Fisher, an extraordinary Admiral and naval visionary, but also the man with childlike emotions. Massie is of the school of historians that believes that to understand what happened, you have to look at the history of the parties, the politics, the personalities -- strengths and often horrible weaknesses-- of the leadership as well as the social context. Any number of mini-biographies pepper the book, but so does nautical detail: the size and deployment of ships, the focused goals that dictated the strategy that was supported by the tactics of both nations, the command systems that encouraged or discouraged innovation or expertise. Winston Churchill and Jacky Fisher, prime ministers and ambassadors, the Kaiser, Admiral Tirpiz (the Jacky Fisher equivalent in Germany) and many other figures provide a level of insight and a breadth of scope that many histories miss entirely to the detriment of the readers who want to understand why it all happened. For the naval side of the years before the first ’modern war’, The Dreadnought is a broad, engaging introduction to what must be the strangest war in history. Massie, like Tuchman, often writes more like a novelist, adding suspense, pacing and humanity to the pages. He is the master of the telling anecdote that sharpens the story. But the scholarship is huge--10 years in the writing and an endless bibliography -- with the broad scope that gives the reader a much better sense of how these nearly accidental enemies entered the disastrous conflict. Dreadnought is followed by Massie’s Castles of Steel published in 2003, which continues the story through the war itself (more on that, if you like, in my review of Castles). The writing is crisp and clear, the story is fascinating and the book pulls you along, helpless to put it aside. Once you have gotten through Tuchman and Massie, get to The First World War by John Keegan, the political and military history of the war on the ground. If you are still entranced, there are many more biographies and military histories to consult. Massie, Tuchman and Keegan are terrific places to start. As a side note, in my opinion, WWI was a war that did not have to happen at all. There were many opportunities for the various antagonists to avoid the enormously bloody, horrific attempts at mutual annihilation. Generals were trained in warfare tactics that were based on the less technologically capable years of the 19th century, outmoded strategies that long range guns,submarines, ’wireless transmissions’ and the new modes of efficient killing one another made pointless. Issues of honor, ego, status, and heredity ’right’ stained the decision making processes, hugely increasing the loss of life. The Peace of Versailles was equally anachron