Alexander Watson Knihy

Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2014 Winner of the 2014 Wolfson History Prize, the 2014 Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History, the Society for Military History's 2015 Distinguished Book Award and the 2015 British Army Military Book of the Year For the empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary the Great War - which had begun with such high hopes for a fast, dramatic outcome - rapidly degenerated as invasions of both France and Serbia ended in catastrophe. For four years the fighting now turned into a siege on a quite monstrous scale. Europe became the focus of fighting of a kind previously unimagined. Despite local successes - and an apparent triumph in Russia - Germany and Austria-Hungary were never able to break out of the the Allies' ring of steel. In Alexander Watson's compelling new history of the Great War, all the major events of the war are seen from the perspective of Berlin and Vienna. It is fundamentally a history of ordinary people. In 1914 both empires were flooded by genuine mass enthusiasm and their troubled elites were at one with most of the population. But the course of the war put this under impossible strain, with a fatal rupture between an ever more extreme and unrealistic leadership and an exhausted and embittered people. In the end they failed and were overwhelmed by defeat and revolution. -- Provided by publisher

A prize-winning, magisterial history of World War I from the perspective of the defeated Central Powers For the Central Powers, the First World War started with high hopes for an easy victory. But those hopes soon deteriorated as Germany's attack on France failed, Austria-Hungary's armies suffered catastrophic losses, and Britain's ruthless blockade brought both nations to the brink of starvation. The Central powers were trapped in the Allies' ever-tightening Ring of Steel. In this compelling history, Alexander Watson retells the war from the perspective of its losers: not just the leaders in Berlin and Vienna, but the people of Central Europe. The war shattered their societies, destroyed their states, and imparted a poisonous legacy of bitterness and violence. A major reevaluation of the First World War, Ring of Steel is essential for anyone seeking to understand the last century of European history.

Exploring the shared experiences of German and British soldiers during the First World War, this comparative history delves into the psychological and physical challenges faced by troops on both sides. It examines their resilience and coping mechanisms amidst the brutality of war, highlighting the human capacity for endurance in the face of adversity. Through personal accounts and historical analysis, the book sheds light on the commonalities and differences in their wartime experiences.

Doskonale udokumentowana i barwnie napisana, zasługuje na miejsce wśród klasyki historii militarnej. Książka roku „BBC History Magazine” i „Financial Times”, uhonorowana Distinguished Book Award 2021 przez Society for Military History, nominowana do Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History i The British Army Military Book of the Year. We wrześniu 1914 roku, zaledwie miesiąc po wybuchu pierwszej wojny światowej, armia rosyjska rozpoczęła oblężenie Przemyśla, przekształcając wieloetniczne miasto w twierdzę, kluczowy bastion broniący monarchii habsburskiej. Przez sześć miesięcy, odpierając szturmy i zmagając się z głodem, wielonarodowa załoga stawiała zacięty opór, uniemożliwiając Rosjanom szybkie zwycięstwo. Miasto padło w marcu 1915 roku, co zapoczątkowało okupację i brutalne prześladowania, w tym pierwszą antysemicką czystkę w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej. Alexander Watson przedstawia najdłuższe oblężenie Wielkiej Wojny, ukazując jego tragiczne konsekwencje i zapowiadając wojnę totalną w Europie. Książka to nie tylko opis oblężenia, ale także analiza chaosu i niebezpieczeństw w monarchii austro-węgierskiej w jej schyłkowym okresie. To świetnie napisana lektura dla każdego, kto pragnie zrozumieć mroczną stronę dwudziestowiecznej Europy.