Victory 1918 - Softcover

Palmer, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802137873 ISBN 13: 9780802137876

Publisher: Grove Press, 2001

Synopsis

When an armistice was finally signed in the forest of Compiegne outside of Paris, the Great War had shuddered to an end, but not before it had been fought on three continents, three oceans, and nine seas. Studies of World War I tend to focus on the Western front, the muddy trenches of France and Belgium, which is particularly problematic considering the final year of the conflict, when offensives in the Balkans, the Middle East, Italy, and the West all ended with decisive victories for the Allied powers. Alan Palmer embraces the full scope of the war and illuminates many of the major players -- Allied generals Sir Douglas Haig, Sir Edmund Allenby, Ferdinand Foch, and John J. Pershing; Central Powers generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff; as well as David Lloyd George, Britain's prime minister. Victory 1918 is rife with tales of horrible misunderstandings such as the Austrian emperor Charles's appeal for peace on September 14, 1918, which was thought by the Allies to be a trick and, if taken seriously, could have saved as many as a quarter of a million lives. As he ably shifts between the diplomatic big picture and the local horrors of the trenches, Palmer presents the war in all its banality and valor.

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Review

Images of World War I are usually dominated by the spectacle of romantic youth being mercilessly ground up in the mud of Ypres and the Somme. Even histories of the Great War tend to focus on the Western Front with, perhaps, a look at the massive battles on the Russian Front while declaring the Middle Eastern, African, and Balkan theaters to be mere "sideshows." Distinguished historian Alan Palmer revises this received wisdom in his excellent book Victory 1918.

Historians have usually argued that the German Army exhausted itself in its final gambit, a titanic push toward Paris in the late months of 1918. Palmer disagrees, contending that Allied offensives in Italy, Greece, Mesopotamia, and France kicked the props out from under the German Empire in the early months of the war's final year. A comprehensive survey of Allied military and diplomatic actions throughout the war, Victory 1918 reveals many global issues that weighed on the minds of British and French war planners. For instance, Field Marshal Earl Kitchner, England's colonial enforcer, squelched a possible jihad throughout India, the Middle East, and Africa by appealing to Mecca's spiritually powerful Sherif Hussein in 1914. This diplomatic coup severely reduced the impact of Sultan Mehmed V's call to arms from Constantinople, meaning Britain could then field more divisions in Flanders. Lucid and entertaining, Victory 1918 is a fresh portrait of a conflict that established the political and military contours of the 20th century. --James Highfill

About the Author

Alan Palmer was educated at Bancroft's School, Woodford Green, and at Oriel College, Oxford. He was head of history at Highgate School, London, for sixteen years. He now concentrates on historical writing and research.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0802137873
• ISBN 13: 9780802137876
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384