RING OF FIRE

A detailed scrutiny of the first month of World War I.

Focused almost exclusively on August 1914, the enormous scope of this book belies its rigid time frame. The authors argue that they sought to show the “how” rather than the “why” of their subject; thus, general readers would do best to equip themselves with an overview of the period before diving into atrocities that are more assumed than explained. That said, this survey is truly global. In European terms, it takes us from the collapse of the Schlieffen Plan, an attempt to prevent Germany from fighting both the French and the Russians simultaneously—which failed to account for the stubborn resistance of neutral Belgium—and led to Liège being the first city bombed from the air. One general lamented, “The good old times of hussar charges are gone,” as men on horseback were mowed down by machine guns. We learn of the tragic collateral deaths of civilians and horses—and of the quirky improvisations of the French, who sent troops to the front in taxis. Likewise, we read of unemployment on the docks of Buenos Aires; New Zealand troops invading German-held Samoa; and the widespread deployment of troops from Africa and the Indian subcontinent. By the time we reach the Battle of the Marne, we are familiar with a common litany: undersupplied and undertrained, largely civilian armies, burdened by heavy equipment and dysentery, fighting in heat and unfamiliar terrain, throttled by insufficient supply lines. Officers of various degrees of incompetence fought “the last war.” Above all, the authors emphasize the extent of that August’s carnage. The deaths of thousands in a single battle, the burnings of cities, towns, and villages, the bleeding of munitions and treasure on such a scale that they transformed Europe into a giant cemetery of rotting corpses, where men crawled through mud to survive: all of them hoping this horror would be done by Christmas.

An outstanding depiction of global conflict.