War of Attrition: Fighting the First World War - Hardcover

Philpott, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 146830268X ISBN 13: 9781468302684

Publisher: The Overlook Press, 2014

Synopsis

The Great War of 1914–1918 was the first mass conflict to fully mobilize the resources of industrial powers against one another, resulting in a brutal, bloody, protracted war of attrition between the world’s great economies.

Now, one hundred years after the first guns of August rang out on the Western front, historian William Philpott reexamines the causes and lingering effects of the first truly modern war.

Drawing on the experience of front line soldiers, munitions workers, politicians, and diplomats, War of Attrition explains for the first time why and how this new type of conflict was fought as it was fought; and how the attitudes and actions of political and military leaders, and the willing responses of their peoples, stamped the twentieth century with unprecedented carnage on―and behind―the battlefield.

War of Attrition also establishes link between the bloody ground war in Europe and political situation in the wider world, particularly the United States. America did not enter the war until 1917, but, as Philpott demonstrates, the war came to America as early as 1914. By 1916, long before the Woodrow Wilson’s impassioned speech to Congress advocating for war, the United States was firmly aligned with the Allies, lending dollars and selling guns and opposing German attempts to spread submarine warfare. War of Attrition skillfully argues that the emergence of the United States on the world stage is directly related to her support for the conflagration that consumed so many European lives and livelihoods. In short, the war that ruined Europe enabled the rise of America.

About this title

About the Authors

William Philpott is Professor of the History of Warfare in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. He is a specialist in the operations on the Western Front and has published extensively on the subject. He is the author ofThree Armies on the Somme: The First Battle of the Twentieth Century.

William Philpott is Professor of the History of Warfare in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. He is a specialist in the operations on the Western Front and has published extensively on the subject. He is the author ofThree Armies on the Somme: The First Battle of the Twentieth Century.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Overlook Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 146830268X
• ISBN 13: 9781468302684
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416