The Guns of August

This Pulitzer prize-winning classic deals with the opening weeks of the Great War on the Western and Eastern fronts as these emerged from the early rounds of fighting. The book is essentially a thought-provoking study of what the author sees as a succession of mistakes, miscalculations and misconceptions that led to a protracted and highly destructive conflict, including the ‘short war’ delusion, the belief that economic interdependence would prove a limitation on willingness to declare war, the disconnect between politics and war making, and the reliance on the cult of the offensive.