Pandora's Box: A History of the First World War

by Jörn Leonhard, Patrick Camiller (Translator)

Overview

Winner of the Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Prize

“The best large-scale synthesis in any language of what we currently know and understand about this multidimensional, cataclysmic conflict.”
—Richard J. Evans, Times Literary Supplement

In this monumental history of the First World War, Germany’s leading historian of the period offers a dramatic account of its origins, course, and consequences. Jörn Leonhard treats the clash of arms with a sure feel for grand strategy. He captures the slow attrition, the race for ever more destructive technologies, and the grim experiences of frontline soldiers. But the war was more than a military conflict and he also gives us the perspectives of leaders, intellectuals, artists, and ordinary men and women around the world as they grappled with the urgency of the moment and the rise of unprecedented political and social pressures. With an unrivaled combination of depth and global reach, Pandora’s Box reveals how profoundly the war shaped the world to come.

“[An] epic and magnificent work—unquestionably, for me, the best single-volume history of the war I have ever read…It is the most formidable attempt to make the war to end all wars comprehensible as a whole.”
—Simon Heffer, The Spectator

“[A] great book on the Great War…Leonhard succeeds in being comprehensive without falling prey to the temptation of being encyclopedic. He writes fluently and judiciously.”
—Adam Tooze, Die Zeit

“Extremely readable, lucidly structured, focused, and dynamic…Leonhard’s analysis is enlivened by a sharp eye for concrete situations and an ear for the voices that best convey the meaning of change for the people and societies undergoing it.”
—Christopher Clark, author of The Sleepwalkers

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674244801
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Pages:	1104
Sales rank:	271,094
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Jörn Leonhard is Professor of European History at the University of Freiburg.

Table of Contents

List of Maps ix

1 Legacies: The First World War and Europe's Long Nineteenth Century 1

2 Antecedents: Crises and Containment before 1914 21

3 Drift and Escalation: Summer and Fall 1914 71

4 Stasis and Movement: 1915 237

5 Wearing Down and Holding Out: 1916 385

6 Expansion and Erosion: 1917 549

7 Onrush and Collapse: 1918 721

8 Outcomes: Wars in Peace and Rival Models of Order, 1919-1923 837

9 Memories: Fragmented Experiences and Polarized Expectations 875

10 Burdens: The First World War and the Century of Global Conflicts 891

Appendix

British and Empire Losses on the Western Front 911

French Losses on the Western Front 912

German Losses on the Western Front 913

German Losses on the Eastern Front 914

Notes 915

Bibliography 977

Acknowledgments 1051

Illustration Credits 1053

Index 1055

Editorial Reviews

[A] very readable history of the war; thankfully, it is far more than a list of battles, but a thoughtful consideration of the epic destructive event in all its varied ramifications…There are more books on the First World War than anyone (even enthusiasts) could read, but Leonhard’s is an honorable addition, a large and weighty volume, literally and metaphorically, that is well worth the time dipping into. Well researched and detailed, Pandora’s Box never tosses the reader into a roiling overload of facts and figures, but looks at the horrors of WWI from many different, illuminating angles.

Arts Fuse - Thomas Filbin

Extremely readable, lucidly structured, focused, and dynamic, Pandora’s Box shows that the world that emerges from the First World War is utterly transformed by the experience. Leonhard’s analysis is enlivened by a sharp eye for concrete situations and an ear for the voices that best convey the meaning of change for the people and societies undergoing it.

Christopher Clark

[A] monumental history…Pandora’s Box is a major contribution to the historiography of the war, the best large-scale synthesis in any language of what we currently know and understand about this multidimensional, cataclysmic conflict…Leonhard has a rare gift for critical, intelligent narrative…A detailed, judicious and virtually comprehensive account of the war, its origins, its history and its consequences.

Times Literary Supplement - Richard J. Evans

Pandora’s Box stands out as the most comprehensive recent book on the First World War in any language. Leonhard provides us with a narrative analysis that combines intellectual precision and thematic focus with multiple perspectives. From the microcosm of the trenches to the home fronts, from the big battles in the East and the West to violent upheavals after 1918, Leonhard’s treatment of the war is wide-ranging while also giving ample space to the different layers of war experiences.

Robert Gerwarth

[An] epic and magnificent work—unquestionably, for me, the best single-volume history of the war I have ever read…It is the most formidable attempt to make the war to end all wars comprehensible as a whole.

The Spectator - Simon Heffer

This is probably the meatiest and most comprehensive WWI book yet published… It is consistently intelligent and thoughtful.

Marginal Revolution - Tyler Cowen

[A] great book on the Great War… Leonhard succeeds in being comprehensive without falling prey to the temptation of being encyclopedic. He writes fluently and judiciously. Footnotes are limited to the essentials. This is, one is tempted to say, a German history in the British style.

Die Zeit - Adam Tooze

Provides a sweeping account of the war, one that incorporates its political, social, and cultural dimensions into a description of the campaigns on the various battlefields…The best single-volume history of the war yet written.

Choice

[Leonhard] presents a stunningly broad and detailed survey of the cataclysm that began the 20th century by first tracing its deep roots in the 19th century and searching out the conflict’s furthest ripples… The reading experience is…thrilling, particularly as the facts accumulate and gradually create a crushing realization of how fundamentally the war changed the world… [Leonhard] puts the whole conflict in a broader context than any historian has managed in a single volume in well over a generation… [An] enormously impressive undertaking… Readers…will be richly rewarded.

Open Letters Review - Steve Donoghue

A library of books were published to mark the centenary of the Great War, but none of them are as good as Jörn Leonhard’s gracefully written, deeply researched, and constantly illuminating account. This is a wonderful book, filled with new information and fresh insights.

James Sheehan

A brilliant history of what people thought about the First World War—before, during and after.

Times Higher Education - Beatrice Heuser

What makes it so compelling is the analysis of events after the peace agreement of 1918, complete with a political map of the world and a stark look at the intense violence that persisted in Europe.

Globe and Mail - Shelby Blackley

Leonhard sets out not simply to write a history of events, but to help his reader understand the greater meaning of the war for the participants…and to us in the twenty-first century…Far more comprehensive in its discussion of national attitudes than virtually all of the recent avalanche of studies on this the centennial of the Great War.

The Bridge