Germany -- History, Military -- 19th century. Prussia (Germany) -- History, Military.

Railroads and Rifles: Soldiers, Technology, and the Unification of Germany

History

Dennis E. Showalter

Europe

Archon Books

Two distinguished historians tell the story of the early modern soldier of Europe, a figure often misunderstood, in the period spanning from 1494 to 1789. He is the freebooting Landsknecht of the sixteenth century, swaggering in dilapidated finery through the ruins he and his kind created. He is the mercenary of the Thirty Years War in the seventeenth century, rootless and masterless, brutalizing civilians for a few coins, destroying civilization's works for the pleasure of it. He is the uniformed automaton of the eighteenth century, initiative beaten out of him, fit to do no more than endure battles and floggings until he pitched into an anonymous grave.
 A timeline provides context for the dates, events, and places discussed in the book; there are extensive endnotes and a comprehensive and topically arranged bibliography of recommended print and online sources. A thorough index completes the book.

Soldiers' Lives through History: The Early Modern World

William J. Astore

Greenwood

With his victory over the Russian army at the battle of Tannenberg in August 1914, Paul von Hindenburg became a war hero. By 1916 he had parlayed an exaggerated reputation for decisive victory into near dictatorial powers. After Germany’s defeat at Verdun and War Minister Erich von Falkenhayn’s dismissal in late 1916, Hindenburg, along with his chief of staff Erich Ludendorff, took over strategic direction of the war. The eponymous Hindenburg Program attempted with some success to mobilize Germany’s economy for war. He also oversaw many of Germany’s most important wartime decisions, including the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, Bethmann Hollweg’s dismissal as chancellor, Russia’s defeat and negotiation of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and the “Ludendorff Offensives” of 1918, which sought decisive victory on the Western Front but ended in Germany’s catastrophic defeat. After the war, Hindenburg played a crucial role in creating the Dolchstosslegende (the myth that the German Army had been “stabbed in the back” by a Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy on the homefront), in leading Germany as president of the Weimar Republic, and, most tragically, in acquiescing to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.

Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism (Military Profiles)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Potomac Books Inc.

The battle of Tannenberg (August 27-30, 1914) opened World War I with a decisive German vicctory over Russia, indeed the Kaiser's only clear cut victory in a non-attritional battle during four years of war. In this classic work, Dennis E Showalter ama;uzes tje battle's causes. effects. amd o,[;ocatopms fpr sibsequent German military policy while guiding the reader through what actually happened on the battlefield, form grand strategy, down to the level of imporvised squad actions. In addition, he examines the battle in the context of contemporary diplomatic, political, and economic affairs. Showalter also reviews both armies' social settings and military doctrines, showing how the battle may be understood as a case study of problems that military organizations face in the initial stages of a major war.

Tannenberg Clash of Empires, 1914

Brassey's

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Books by Dennis E. Showalter