The Great War, 1914-1918 (Ark Paperbacks)

289 Pages·1987·2.11 MB·English

by  Marc Ferro

The Great War
‘Written with great verve, a remarkable gift for concise
statement of complicated issues, and a command of
telling detail.’
The Times Educational Supplement
‘Honest and provocative ... in many ways brilliant, and
always lively ... a tour de force.’
The Times Literary Supplement

Marc
Ferro
The Great War
1914–1918
Translated by Nicole Stone
London and New York
La Grande Guerre first published 1969
by Editions Gallimard, Paris
English edition first published 1973
by Routledge & Kegan Paul
First published in Routledge Classics 2002
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
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© 1969 Editions Gallimard
Translation © 1973 Routledge & Kegan Paul
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been applied for
ISBN 0–415–26734–X (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–26735–8 (pbk)
For Éric and Isabelle

CONTENTS
Translator’s Note ix
Introduction xi
PART I 1
1 War, the Liberator 3
2 Patriotic War 10
3 Inevitable War 21
4 Imaginary War 29
5 ‘War on War’ 38
6 War is Declared 44
PART II 53
7 From Movement to Stagnation 55
8 Strong Points and Weak Points 66
9 Verdun and the Great Battles 83
10 Cannon Fodder and the New Art of War 94
11 Styles of War: Direct and Indirect 108
12 World War and Total War 124
13 The Possible and the Impossible 140
viii contents
PART III 161
14 Tensions New and Old 165
15 Crises of War 200
16 Revolutionary Peace, Compromise Peace, Victorious
Peace 210
PART IV 227
17 Between War and Crusade 229
18 The Illusions of Victory 237
Select Bibliography 252
Index 255
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
I have tried to convey in this translation the individual flavour of Marc
Ferro’s original French, sometimes clarifying phrases which make
sound sense in French, but less in English. This edition incorporates
corrections to the French and Italian editions, as well as some new
material produced by M. Ferro for this English version, and the
bibliography notes English translations of books he cited in French
translation or their original language.
n.s.