Buy this book on-line HASTINGS**, MAX: : CATASTROPHE - EUROPE GOES TO WARLONDON.WILLIAM COLLINS/HarperCollinsPublishers,2018. ISBN 9780007974344.
UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line1.Originally published by WILLIAM COLLINS/HarperCollinsPublishers in 2013.This the first William Collins issue/ edn.See my book ID rja705617 for UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,for true 1st edn.]FINE-/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj. Bright,crisp,clean,matt,part coloured sepia photographic illustration,with embossed gilt,and embossed white lettering to front panel of dw/dj,similar coloured lettering to photographic spine/backstrip, and rear panel with white lettered critics' reviews for this title; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present. Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean - pristine,as new - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - appears unread,apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean,generally sharp-cornered - top front+rear corners minimally bumped,publisher's original grey paper-covered boards with bright,crisp, blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip,a pale cream headband and immaculate contemporary Edwardian scenic,Henley-on- Thames riverside punting scene,colour photographic illustrated front endpapers and a contemporary b/w battlefield photographic illustrated rear endpapers. UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,xiv-xlipp+ 2 -628pp [paginated] includes separate illustrations+b/w(21+2 double-paged,one with another map inset) maps lists/tables, author's introduction,a 1914 chronology,a prologue,18 sections/chapters - some with multiple chapters within those,32pp of b/w contemporary photographs in 4 blocks of 8pp apiece,between pp86/7,pp214/5,pp374/5 and pp502/3 respectively,and to the rear, acknowledgements,notes and references,a 9pp bibliography and an index.Plus [unpaginated] half-title,publisher advert for author's other titles,title page,a dedication,title separator page with blank reverse,contents list/table,an epigrams(3) page also with blank reverse and 2pp blanks at the rear.
In 1914,Europe plunged into the 20th century's first terrible act of self-immolation - what was then called 'The Great War'.To mark the centenary of the war's end,Max Hastings seeks to explain both how the conflict came about and what befell millions of men and women during the first months of strife.He finds the evidence overwhelming that Austria and Germany must accept principal blame for the outbreak.While what followed was a vast tragedy,he argues passionately against the 'poets' view',that the war was not worth winning.It was vital to the freedom of Europe,he says,that the Kaiser's Germany should be defeated.
His narrative of the early battles will astonish those whose images of the war are simply of mud,wire,trenches and steel helmets.Hastings describes how the French Army marched into action amid virgin rural landscapes,in uniforms of red and blue,led by mounted officers,with flags flying and bands playing.The bloodiest day of the entire Western war fell on 22 August 1914, when the French lost 27,000 dead.Four days later,at Le Cateau,the British fought an extraordinary action against the oncoming Germans,one of the last of its kind in history.In October,at terrible cost they held the allied line against massive German assaults in the first battle of Ypres.The author also describes the brutal struggles in Serbia,East Prussia and Galicia,where by Christmas the Germans, Austrians,Russians and Serbs had inflicted on each other three million casualties.
The book offers some answers to the huge and fascinating question 'what happened to Europe in 1914?',through Max Hastings's accustomed blend of top-down and bottom-up accounts from a multitude of statesmen and generals,peasants,housewives and private soldiers of seven nations.His narrative pricks myths and offers some striking and controversial judgements.An essential book for new readers and a worthy addition for those previously gripped by the author's bestsellers.
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