Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front, 1914–1918(Publications of the German Historical Institute)

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.

Table of Contents:
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.

Review :
'... a fine collection of essays that students of the Great War should not miss.' The Economic History Review '... this collection can justify its claim to address the 'totality' of war on the Western Front, and the reader can expect a broadening ... of his or her knowledge of the conflict from reading this volume.' War in History '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 Muller, German Historical Institute Bulletin