Catastrophe 1914

Europe Goes to War

By: Max Hastings

Narrated by: Simon Vance

From the acclaimed military historian, a new history of the outbreak of World War I: the dramatic stretch from the breakdown of diplomacy to the battles—the Marne, Ypres, Tannenberg—that marked the frenzied first year before the war bogged down in the trenches.

In Catastrophe 1914, Max Hastings gives us a conflict different from the familiar one of barbed wire, mud and futility. He traces the path to war, making clear why Germany and Austria-Hungary were primarily to blame, and describes the gripping first clashes in the West, where the French army marched into action in uniforms of red and blue with flags flying and bands playing. In August, four days after the French suffered 27,000 men dead in a single day, the British fought an extraordinary holding action against oncoming Germans, one of the last of its kind in history. In October, at terrible cost the British held the allied line against massive German assaults in the first battle of Ypres. Hastings also re-creates the lesser-known battles on the Eastern Front, brutal struggles in Serbia, East Prussia and Galicia, where the Germans, Austrians, Russians and Serbs inflicted three million casualties upon one another by Christmas.

As he has done in his celebrated, award-winning works on World War II, Hastings gives us frank assessments of generals and political leaders and masterly analyses of the political currents that led the continent to war. He argues passionately against the contention that the war was not worth the cost, maintaining that Germany’s defeat was vital to the freedom of Europe. Throughout we encounter statesmen, generals, peasants, housewives and private soldiers of seven nations in Hastings’s accustomed blend of top-down and bottom-up accounts: generals dismounting to lead troops in bayonet charges over 1,500 feet of open ground; farmers who at first decried the requisition of their horses; infantry men engaged in a haggard retreat, sleeping four hours a night in their haste. This is a vivid new portrait of how a continent became embroiled in war and what befell millions of men and women in a conflict that would change everything.

The breadth and comprehensiveness of the research.

The single best book on WWI that I have ever experienced. Engrossing, fascinating, superb, and awe inspiring.

Amazing author, excellent voice actor

Max Hastings is a legend. Simon Vance is a legend. Really well written and read.

Sobering

As indicated in the headline, this is a sobering lesson on a horrific period of human history. Max Hastings is a great writer and clearly did his research. As is always the case, Simon Vance makes the words come alive. I think I'd listen to him read the phone book, (Are there still such things?)
My only complaint is that Hastings' frequently uses quotes in languages other than English, most often in French, and they are rarely translated. I realize that it is a failing on my part to be largely ignorant of languages other than my native tongue, but I feel I missed out on some of the important insights Hastings felt needed to be added to the narrative. It should have been relatively easy for Mr. Vance to provide a quick translation.
In summary, it is a long book, but well worth the time. Just be prepared for an overwhelming sadness because of Man's inhumanity.

Knowing Something More

Knowing something more than we did before the Great War. Why would it matter if we found out why it happened? We think we knew. Maybe we could find out more? What for? Because it may mean enough to us that we might actually learn enough to enjoy a lasting world peace. Wishful thinking unless every nation subscribed to and practiced with us. This is as humorous as it is a behind the scene before the production of the Great War.

Excellent Treatment of the Causes of WWI

Thorough explanation of the political and economic causes that lead directly to WWI and, more importantly, how otherwise rational and competent people could lead Eurasia and much of Africa into absolute madness through their incompetence and hubris. There are many obvious lessons to be drawn in today’s current geopolitical situation.