The Pity of War: Explaining World War IBasic Books, 05.08.2008 - 352 Seiten From a bestselling historian, a daringly revisionist history of World War I The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German aims, thereby transforming a Continental conflict into a world war, which it then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather was the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces. That the war was wicked, horrific, and inhuman is memorialized in part by the poetry of men like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, but also by cold statistics. Indeed, more British soldiers were killed in the first day of the Battle of the Somme than Americans in the Vietnam War. And yet, as Ferguson writes, while the war itself was a disastrous folly, the great majority of men who fought it did so with little reluctance and with some enthusiasm. For anyone wanting to understand why wars are fought, why men are willing to fight them and why the world is as it is today, there is no sharper or more stimulating guide than Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War. |
Inhalt
Britains War of Illusions | |
Arms and | |
Public Finance and National Security | |
28 June4 August 1914 | |
The Myth of War Enthusiasm | |
The Press Gang | 54 |
The Advantage Squandered | 84 |
Strategy Tactics and the Net Body Count | 38 |
War Finance | 62 |
Why Men Fought | 78 |
The Captors Dilemma | 94 |
How not to Pay for the | 96 |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
A. J. P. Taylor Albert Ballin Albertini Allied American AngloGerman antiwar argued argument arms Asquith attack August Austria–Hungary Austrian battle Belgian Belgium Berlin Bethmann bonds Britain British Cabinet capital casualties cent Central Powers collapse cooperation crisis David Lloyd George death debt defeat defence diplomatic economic Empire End of Isolation enemy England Entente Europe European expenditure fighting figures Finanzpolitik force foreign France France and Russia French Geiss German army Germany’s Grey Grey’s historians Hynes Ibid Imperial income increase industrial inflation John Maynard Keynes Joseph Chamberlain July Jünger Kaiser Keynes killed labour later less Liberal Lloyd George Ludendorff Max Warburg memoirs military million mobilization Moltke Monger Morale naval neutrality officers peace political politicians postwar prewar prisoners propaganda Reich reparations Russia Serbia social soldiers Storm of Steel strategy surrender trade Triple Entente troops TwentyFive victory Warburg wartime Western Front Wilson World wounded