Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I - The People's War

Alexander Watson’s compelling new history retells World War I from the perspectives of its instigators and losers, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians. This monograph recounts not just the story of their leaders in Berlin and Vienna, but of the common people. Only through their unprecedented mobilization could the conflict last so long and be so bitterly fought, and only with the waning of their commitment did it end. The war shattered their societies, destroyed their states and bequeathed to east-central Europe a poisonous legacy of unredeemed sacrifice, suffering, race hatred and violence. A major re-evaluation of the First World War, Ring of Steel is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the last century of European history [publisher.]