THE PITY OF WAR. EXPLAINING WORLD WAR I. by Ferguson, Niall

Basic Books, New York, 1999, book club edition. 563 pp, large 8vo (9 1/2" H), hard cover in dust jacket. B&w photographs, tables, graphs. "More than four million Americans were mobilized in 1917-18, of whom more than 100,000 were killed - double the number who died in Vietnam. This was the fir st, bloody step on the road to globalism which would characterize our foreign policy for the rest of the twentieth century. Even American literature was transformed by the impact of the war on writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Internat i o n a l l y , more than any other event, the First World War made the twentieth century what it was: It toppled the four great empires of the Old World and left a fifth - the British - mortgaged to the hilt. More than nine million men lost their li ve s, y et n on e of its stated objectives were met. Rather, it spawned seven decades of Communist rule in Russia, the rise of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, and the horror of the Holocaust. Now, as the century draws to a close, the time is righ t f or a r adi cal re ass essment of the 'Great War'. In (this book, the author) explodes the myths of 1914-18. He argues that the fatal conflict between Britain and Germany was far from inevitable. It was Britain's declaration of war that needl essl y t urne d a cont inen tal conflict into a world war, and it was Britain's economic mismanagement and military inferiority that necessitated American involvement, forever altering the global balance of power. Ferguson vividly brings back to li fe on e of the semi nal c atast roph es of the century, not through a dry citation of chronological chapter and verse, but through a series of brilliant chapters that answer the key questions: Why did the war start? Why did it continue? And why did it st op? How d id th e Germ ans ma nage to kill more soldiers than they lost but still end up defeated in November 1918? Above all, why did men fight?" Minor rubbing, tiny bump at top of front hinge. Dust jacket has one tiny edge tear and minor browni ng o n spin e. Ve ry Good +/Very Good+.