Instrument of War, Dennis E. Showalter
Instrument of War, Dennis E. Showalter
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Instrument of War
The German Army 1914–18

Author: Dennis E. Showalter

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Unabridged: 10 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/19/2018


Synopsis

Drawing on more than a half-century of research and teaching, Dennis Showalter presents a fresh perspective on the German Army during World War I. Showalter surveys an army at the heart of a national identity, driven by—yet also defeated by—warfare in the modern age, that struggled to capitalize on its victories, and ultimately forgot the lessons of its defeat.

Exploring the internal dynamics of the German Army, detailing how the soldiers coped with the many new forms of warfare, Showalter shows how the army's institutions responded and how Germany itself was changed by war. He goes on to detail the major campaigns on the Western and Eastern Fronts and the forgotten war fought in the Middle East and Africa, revealing operational strategy, the complexities of campaigns of movement versus static trench warfare, and the changes in warfare.

About Dennis E. Showalter

The late Dennis Showalter was professor emeritus of history at Colorado College. He was past president of the Society for Military History and founding joint editor of War in History. He was awarded the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing in 2018. He lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Julian

I think this book was the last one that I bought that was purely a military history. I have always found them boring and way too detailed and technical for me to enjoy and always found myself falling asleep reading them. This one, almost 300 pages stretched into 6 chapters does not help especially w......more

Dennis Showalter is one of the most respected of military historians writing today, so his new history of the German Army of the 1914-18 conflict, ‘Instrument of War’, has been eagerly anticipated. It should not disappoint either the academic community or the general readers at whom it is also aimed......more

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from NetGalley. Institutional histories can be very dry and only of interest to specialists. Dennis Showalter, however, is at his best and most entertaining within the historical genre. Instrument of War: The German Army 1914-18 is intended for genera......more

Goodreads review by Heinz

Dennis Showalter, easily the best of the American historians dealing in German military history, presents a highly analytical, profoundly well written, easy to read, if at times superficial, look at the Imperial German Army during the Great War. Showalter's thesis, that the German Army, distanced fr......more