A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire - Softcover

Wawro, Geoffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465057950 ISBN 13: 9780465057955

Publisher: Basic Books, 2015

Synopsis

The Austro-Hungarian army that marched east and south to confront the Russians and Serbs in the opening campaigns of World War I had a glorious past but a pitiful present. Speaking a mystifying array of languages and lugging outdated weapons, the Austrian troops were hopelessly unprepared for the industrialized warfare that would shortly consume Europe.As prizewinning historian Geoffrey Wawro explains in A Mad Catastrophe , the doomed Austrian conscripts were an unfortunate microcosm of the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself,both equally ripe for destruction. After the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, Germany goaded the Empire into a war with Russia and Serbia. With the Germans massing their forces in the west to engage the French and the British, everything,the course of the war and the fate of empires and alliances from Constantinople to London,hinged on the Habsburgs' ability to crush Serbia and keep the Russians at bay. However, Austria-Hungary had been rotting from within for years, hollowed out by repression, cynicism, and corruption at the highest levels. Commanded by a dying emperor, Franz Joseph I, and a querulous celebrity general, Conrad von Hötzendorf, the Austro-Hungarians managed to bungle everything: their ultimatum to the Serbs, their declarations of war, their mobilization, and the pivotal battles in Galicia and Serbia. By the end of 1914, the Habsburg army lay in ruins and the outcome of the war seemed all but decided. Drawing on deep archival research, Wawro charts the decline of the Empire before the war and reconstructs the great battles in the east and the Balkans in thrilling and tragic detail. A Mad Catastrophe is a riveting account of a neglected face of World War I, revealing how a once-mighty empire collapsed in the trenches of Serbia and the Eastern Front, changing the course of European history.

About this title

Review:

"A Mad Catastrophe finally brings some clarity to how the death of one Archduke, while admittedly tragic, could lead to the deaths of millions.... Wawro's excellently written book, in chilling detail, explains all the frustrating and infuriating blundering. The war was completely senseless, the insane war-lust of a failing state; this book gives Austria-Hungary its rightful, starring role as cause of the conflict." --San Francisco Book Review

"Wawro writes about the Austro-Hungarian Empire's role in the start and unfolding of the Great War with verve, inescapable black humour and a certain note of there-but-for-the-grace-of-God."--Macleans

"A Mad Catastrophe is a welcome contribution to the small but growing number of scholarly studies of the eastern front that have appeared in English over the last few years."--BBC History Magazine

"A riveting account of a neglected face of WWI."--Military History

"A fascinating addition to the military and diplomatic scholarship surrounding Austria-Hungary's inept move toward war and its incompetent execution of the conflict.... Wawro's book is an excellent account of where plunging over a cliff will land you: in pieces."--MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History

"Wawro's authoritative account is a damning analysis of an empire and a people unready for war."--Publishers Weekly

"Wawro's contribution lies in his focus on how the overall decline of Austria-Hungary broke relations with the Balkan states and Russia and how its military blundering caused its ultimate destruction. A worthwhile read."--Library Journal

"Exceptionally accessible to the general reader, Wawro offers a picture of an Austro-Hungarian leadership that was reckless in the extreme...with a fatalistic sense of 'now or never.'" --Wall Street Journal

"Wawro is a historian of the US military, but his damning portrait of the neurotic empire...well reflects the surreal fiction of Hasek and Musil."--Literary Review, UK

"An engaging case study in the disaster that can happen when interests and capabilities get greatly out of kilter.... Readable and entertaining."--Army Magazine

Book Description:

"Powerful . . . Wawro offers a picture of an Austro-Hungarian leadership that was reckless in the extreme.'"-Wall Street Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0465057950
• ISBN 13: 9780465057955
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 475