Full name: A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire

Author: Geoffrey Wawro Year: 2014 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: History, Non Fiction, War/Military Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780465028351 0465028357

The Austro-Hungarian army that marched eastward in the opening campaign of World War I was as disordered a force as the world had ever seen. Speaking a mystifying array of languages and carrying outdated weapons, the troops were hopelessly unprepared for the mechanized warfare that would soon consume the entire continent. As prizewinning historian Geoffrey Wawro explains, the disorganization of these doomed conscripts perfectly mirrored Austra-Hungary itself. For years, the Dual Monarchy had been rotting from within, hollowed out by complacency and corruption at the highest levels. Germany goaded Austria into a longed-for fight with Russia and her allies before the monarchy collapsed completely, but the severity of the fighting was too much for the weakened Empire. By the time 1914 ended, the Habsburg army lay in ruins, and the course of the war seemed all but decided. Reconstructing the climax of the Austrian campaign in gripping detail, Wawro offers a riveting account of how Austria-Hungary plunged the West into a tragic and unnecessary war. Similar books: A World Undone by G. J. Meyer Mud, Blood and Poppycock by Gordon Corrigan World War One by Norman Stone Catastrophe 1914 by Max Hastings The First World War by Hew Strachan The Pity of War by Niall Ferguson In Flanders Fields by Leon Wolff The Lost History of 1914 by Jack Beatty With Our Backs to the Wall by David Stevenson The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund The First World War by Martin Gilbert July 1914 by Sean McMeekin Forgotten Voices of the Great War by Max Arthur World War I by S. L. A. Marshall Europe's Last Summer by David Fromkin The Franco-Prussian War by Geoffrey Wawro 13 Hours by Mitchell Zuckoff Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz Indianapolis by Lynn Vincent Shattered Sword by Jonathan Parshall