War of Attrition: Fighting the First World War

by William Philpott Narrated by Derek Perkins

Overview

The Great War of 1914-1918 was the first mass conflict to fully mobilize the resources of industrial powers against one another, resulting in a brutal, bloody, protracted war of attrition between the world's great economies. Now, one hundred years after the first guns of August rang out on the Western front, historian William Philpott reexamines the causes and lingering effects of the first truly modern war.



Drawing on the experience of front-line soldiers, munitions workers, politicians, and diplomats, War of Attrition explains for the first time why and how this new type of conflict was fought as it was fought, as well as how the attitudes and actions of political and military leaders, and the willing responses of their peoples, stamped the twentieth century with unprecedented carnage on-and behind-the battlefield.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"An astute examination by an expert war historian that sifts through the collective 'theatres of attrition' in this unprecedented slaughter." ---Kirkus

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"An astute examination by an expert war historian that sifts through the collective 'theatres of attrition' in this unprecedented slaughter." —Kirkus

The Times - Praise for Three Armies on the Somme

Philpott displays a great mastery of detail. . . . He can certainly claim to have made a solid contribution to what has been an extraordinarily long-running debate.

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Literary Review - Praise for Three Armies on the Somme

A thoughtful and important book by a first-rate historian

The Military Shelf

A work of truly impressive and documented scholarship, War of Attrition is a strongly recommended contribution to the growing library of World War I literature.

The Wall Street Journal

Philpott argues persuasively that the stunning victories of the last hundred days of the war were the result of a steep learning curve necessitated by earlier bloodbaths.

Geoffrey Wawro

'The armies have outgrown the brains of the people who direct them,' French general Ferdinand Foch worried before the war and, initially, he was correct. William Philpott has written an incisive, colorful book that details the race by both sides first to understand and then to master a long war of attrition that had been planned by every power as a short war of annihilation. War of Attrition succeeds both as an argument and as a gripping narrative of the dreadful process by which the armies (and navies) swerved from the objective of breaking though to that of killing men in a vast, globe-spanning war of exhaustion.

SEPTEMBER 2014 - AudioFile

Philpott’s history of WWI as a process of grinding, murderous attrition is mostly told at an abstract level of politics, economics, strategy, and ideas, and can be dry and a bit repetitious. Derek Perkins, however, keeps the audiobook moving, narrating with unflagging intelligence and energy, aided by his clear and incisive British accent and excellent pacing. His modulations of tone and emphasis express the meanings of the text and help keep places, events, people, and concepts across several continents and four years effortlessly clear for the listener. His pronunciation of foreign names and words, especially German, is good. The book, while worthwhile, might have been tiring to listen to; Perkins brings the listener along with enjoyment. W.M. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2014-04-01
A rigorous look at the grinding war machine involved in the making of the Great War, both at home and on the battlefield. Author of the authoritative Three Armies of the Somme (2010), Philpott (War Studies/ King's Coll., London) plunges into the complicated factors that allowed the war of attrition, which had been used effectively since ancient times, to "come into its own" during World War I. The clash of the powerful industrialized armies created a three-year stalemate within the trenches of the western front in France, rather than a swift, decisive victory anticipated by the Central Powers by Christmas 1914. As such, the fighting required the strategic coordination of four other "fronts" in order to defeat the enemy: the maritime front, whereby Britain and Germany would contest superiority of the seas, most effectively through economic blockade; the home front, encompassing raw material resources and maintaining the wills of the populations to support the war; the diplomatic front, involving war and peace negotiations, including the introduction of President Woodrow Wilson's appeals to "peace without victory" in 1917; and the "united front"—i.e., the ability of the cohorts to work together, as the Allies managed to do more effectively than the Central Powers. Philpott looks at how each engaged country addressed each front, from the shift from short-term thinking to long-term slog, as the old-style generals were learning that, as British Secretary for War John Seeley noted, "the armies have outgrown the brains of the people who direct them." The author also addresses the "essential and practical" construction of the trench systems; the diversion of war materiel to the Middle East to fight Turkey, which was allied with Germany; and the manipulation of press and propaganda while mobilizing manpower and morale. An astute examination by an expert war historian that sifts through the collective "theatres of attrition" in this unprecedented slaughter.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170818648
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	06/30/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

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