Ms.pegasus's Reviews > A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

The passage of time has, for most of us, petrified our knowledge of World War I into an amalgam of abstractions. First there are the memorial markers standing as solemn tributes, the centerpiece, perhaps, of annual ceremonies commemorating this or that horrific battle. The result is at best a kind of static communion between observer and marker. It is impossible to process the multiple perspectives and emotional tenor that fueled the dynamic of World War I. Even the questions which seek to affix blame for the start of the war, the catastrophic losses, the missed opportunities to halt the war, and the strategic blunders have a disconnected feel from the actual events.

Meyer avoids the over-simplifications that are often proposed to address these questions. He fills in a historical context that includes Bismark's balancing act, both domestically and abroad, and the gradual dissolution of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires which precipitated a succession of geopolitical crises. Meyer sustains his narrative of connectedness in his account of the battles and troop movements that occurred on several fronts. His writing invokes the insecurities, paranoia, greed, jealousy, resentment and fear that predisposed the decisions of political and military leaders of the time.

Meyer brings many of the key figures to life. Of Count Leopold von Berchtold, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's foreign minister he says, “He had become, in short, dangerous: a weak man determined to appear strong.” (p.17) Of Maurice Paléologue, France's ambassador to Russia, he states: “Thanks to the scheming of Ambassador Paléologue, Paris had only limited knowledge of what was happeining in St. Petersburg, and the Russians had no reason to think that the French government was not enthusiastic about their mobilization.” (p.104) Russia and Germany were nominally ruled by autocrats. It was therefore shocking for me to learn how little both the Tsar and the Kaiser knew about their own military plans. Meyer describes Kaiser Wilhelm II: “Not surprisingly, many of the men who were sworn to serve him regarded him not just as immature but as mentally unstable.” (p.39) Of Tsar Nicholas II, he writes: “What neither Sazonov [Russia's foreign minister] nor Nicholas understood was that Russia's mobilization would arouse in Germany's generals a panic indistinguishable from the fears driving the Russians.” (p.65) Against a background of frantic but futile “Nicky/Willie” correspondence, the generals were taking over.

Meyer emphacizes the logistic burden that dogged all troop movements in this war. “A mass of infantry on the move is like nothing else in the world, but it may usefully be thought of as an immensely long and cumbersome caterpillar with the head of a near-sighted tiger....An advancing army's worst vulnerability lies in the long caterpillar body behind the head.” (p.115)

The bulk of Meyer's book is concerned with the many catastrophic battles that occurred between 1914 and 1917. It is impossible to process the statistics Meyer includes. The carnage was appalling. By the end of the 1914 section, it was difficult for me to read this book except in small sections. By the Battle of the Somme I had become numb to the mounting casualty figures. By the end of the war, civilian deaths from starvation and disease and infant mortality figures further assault the mind.

However, Meyer intersperses fascinating sketches as background and these interludes are the real strength of the book. Geopolitical calculations determined Turkey and Italy's involvement in the war as well as their alliances. America had a significant economic stake in the fortunes of the Entente. Anti-Semitism was pervasive throughout Europe, despite the significant number of Jews inducted into all of the armies. The rush to meet munitions quotas caused significant quality control problems in British factories. These digressions illuminate the profound dysfunction that both prolonged the war and structured an aftermath that continues to haunt us.

This was a thought-provoking book based on a convincing quantity of scholarship. I recommend it to everyone. It is an antidote to any complacency about the so-called lessons we have learned from World War I, particularly as commemorative events marking the war's centennial are staged.

NOTES:
Photographs of many of the commemorative monuments to World War I: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel...