Great War, Total War
Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front, 1914–1918

This 2000 volume analyses the First World War in light of the concept of 'total war'.

Roger Chickering (Edited by), Stig Förster (Edited by)

9780521026376, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 April 2006

544 pages, 13 b/w illus. 1 map 17 tables
22.8 x 15.4 x 3 cm, 0.816 kg

'The volume is made attractive by the extremely high quality of the contributions, and by its discussion of important questions concerning the historical location of the First World War.' Sven Oliver Müller, German Historical Institute Bulletin

The First World War was the first large-scale industrialized military conflict in the world's history, and it gave birth to the concept of total war. The essays in this 2000 volume analyse the experience of the war in light of this concept's implications, in particular the systematic erosion of distinctions between the military and civilian spheres. With an emphasis on developments in Germany, France, Great Britain and the United States, leading scholars from Europe and North America locate the First World War along a trajectory that began in the wars of the middle of the nineteenth century and culminated in worldwide conflict in the middle of the twentieth. The essays explore the efforts of soldiers and statesmen, industrialists and financiers, professionals and civilian activists to adjust to the titanic, pervasive pressures that the military stalemate on the western front imposed on belligerent and neutral societies.

Introduction Stig Förster
Part I. Basic Reflections: 1. From cabinet war to total war: the perspective of military doctrine, 1861–1918 Hew Strachan
2. World War I and the theory of total war: reflections on the British and German cases Roger Chickering
Part II. The Changing Realities of Warfare: 3. World War I and the revolution in logistics Martin van Creveld
4. Mass warfare and the impact of technology Dennis E. Showalter
5. Total war through new weapons? The use of chemical agents in World War I Rolf-Dieter Müller
6. Planning total war? Falkenhayn and the Battle of Verdun 1916 Holger Afflerbach
7. The most extensive experiment that imagination can produce: violence of war, emotional stress, and German medicine Wolfgang U. Eckart
Part III. War Against Noncombatants: 8. War between soldiers and enemy civilians, 1914–15 John Horne and Alan Kramer
9. The blockade of Germany and the strategy of starvation Avner Offer
10. Total rhetoric, limited war: Germany's U-boat campaign, 1917–18 Holger H. Herwig
11. The first air war against noncombatants: strategic bombing of German cities in World War I Christian Geinitz
12. Bullying the neutrals: the case of the Netherlands Marc Frey
Part IV. Politicians, Soldiers and the Problem of Unlimited Warfare: 13. Poincaré, Clemenceau, and the quest for total victory J. F. V. Keiger
14. Strategy and unlimited warfare in Germany: Moltke, Falkenhayn, and Ludendorff Wilhelm Deist
15. The strategy of unlimited warfare: Kitchener, Robertson, and Haig David French
16. French strategy on the Western Front, 1914–18 David Stevenson
17. Strategy and total war in the United States Russell F. Weigley
Part V. Mobilizing Economies and Finance for War: 18. War aims, state intervention, and business leadership in Germany: the case of Hugo Stinnes Gerald D. Feldman
19. Lloyd George and the management of the British war economy Keith Grieves
20. Better late than never: the American economic war effort, 1917–18 Elisabeth Glaser
21. How (not) to pay for the war: traditional finance and total war Niall Ferguson
Part VI. Societies Mobilized for War: 22. Mobilizing German society for war Richard Bessel
23. Women's wartime services under the cross: patriotic communities in Germany, 1912–18 Jean H. Quataert
24. Pandora's Box: propaganda and war hysteria in the United States during World War I Jörg Nagler
25. Painting and music during and after the Great War: the art of total war Arthur Marwick
Index.

Subject Areas: First World War [HBWN], European history [HBJD]