On a Knife Edge: How Germany Lost the First World War (Cambridge Military Histories)

Afflerbach, Holger

ISBN 10: 1108965865 / ISBN 13: 9781108965866

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2024

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: On a Knife Edge: How Germany Lost the First World War (Cambridge Military Histories)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108965865
• ISBN 13: 9781108965866
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Was the outcome of the First World War on a knife edge? In this major new account of German wartime politics and strategy Holger Afflerbach argues that the outcome of the war was actually in the balance until relatively late in the war. Using new evidence from diaries, letters and memoirs, he fundamentally revises our understanding of German strategy from the decision to go to war and the failure of the western offensive to the radicalisation of Germany's war effort under Hindenburg and Ludendorff and the ultimate collapse of the Central Powers. He uncovers the struggles in wartime Germany between supporters of peace and hardliners who wanted to fight to the finish. He suggests that Germany was not nearly as committed to all-out conquest as previous accounts argue. Numerous German peace advances could have offered the opportunity to end the war before it dragged Europe into the abyss.

About the Author

Holger Afflerbach is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Leeds. His previous publications include a biography of Erich von Falkenhayn, and a study of the Triple Alliance.