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The Fortress: The Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe's Bloodlands Hardcover – Illustrated, February 25, 2020

by Alexander Watson (Author)

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A prizewinning historian tells the dramatic story of the siege that changed the course of the First World War

In September 1914, just a month into World War I, the Russian army laid siege to the fortress city of Przemysl, the Hapsburg Empire's most important bulwark against invasion. For six months, against storm and starvation, the ragtag garrison bitterly resisted, denying the Russians a quick victory. Only in March 1915 did the city fall, bringing occupation, persecution, and brutal ethnic cleansing.

In The Fortress, historian Alexander Watson tells the story of the battle for Przemysl, showing how it marked the dawn of total war in Europe and how it laid the roots of the bloody century that followed. Vividly told, with close attention to the unfolding of combat in the forts and trenches and to the experiences of civilians trapped in the city, The Fortress offers an unprecedentedly intimate perspective on the eastern front's horror and human tragedy.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Basic Books
Publication date

February 25, 2020
Dimensions

6.25 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

1541697308
ISBN-13

978-1541697300
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Fortress takes us into the tense, claustrophobic atmosphere of the front-line in a crucial few months of the war...Watson's book is an impressive telling of a story almost entirely unknown, and it makes clear how much we have yet to learn about the first world war away from the western front."―Mark Mazower, Financial Times

"Watson's splendid book combines great evocative power (and flashes of sharp humour) with the ethical authority of the best history writing. The story it tells is unsettling, because it resists any attempt to encompass the death and violence of war within a narrative of redemption. It recalls instead a war that never really ended, but rather spilled out into cascades of further violence whose toxic effects are still with us today."―Guardian (UK)

"Watson's account of these men's experience of battle is a brilliant distillation of their letters, diaries and memories. The voices of the siege convey its horror and the terror of men who had to endure it and suppress their fear of death... The vividly written and well-researched The Fortress is a masterpiece. It deserves to become a classic of military history."―The Times (UK)

"[The Fortress] is excellent history, a marvelously readable, though tragic, story of its time and of how the clock can be made to turn backwards under siege conditions; and in its account of the Habsburg commanders' unshakable vanity, philandering and cockiness it has plenty of modern resonances as a parable of arrogant exceptionalism, imperial conceit and perilous isolationism."―The Daily Telegraph (UK)

"The Fortress is based on extraordinarily impressive research, yet is also vivid, imaginative, and humane. It recaptures one of the most terrible episodes in a terrible war, which -- as Watson rightly argues -- presaged even greater horrors to come."―David Stevenson, London School of Economics and Political Science

"Przemysl, Habsburg Austria's easternmost fortress, lay in Galicia, a flat borderland between the turbulent German, Austrian, and Russian empires. Watson reconstructs the Russian siege in engrossing detail, and also proves that the eastern 'bloodlands' later ravaged by the Nazis and Soviets had already been desolated once before -- during World War I and its chaotic aftermath, when the Russians and Austro-Hungarians, desperate to hold Galicia, taught Hitler and Stalin how to weaken and destroy unwanted peoples like the Jews or Ukrainians."―Geoffrey Wawro, author of A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire

"Przemysl is best known for its challenges to orthography and pronunciation. But Watson contextualizes the history of this remote Habsburg fortress-city from its beginnings as a strategic pivot to its development as a focal point for overlapping imperial and nationalist aspirations. The defining event was the great siege of 1914, whose everyday routines and long term consequences Watson presents with a verve and clarity making this a must read for students of the Great War in the east."―Dennis Showalter, professor emeritus, Colorado College

"There is a great deal more to this book than an account of the longest siege of the Great War, one that stalled the Russian advance and saved the Central Powers from defeat in 1914. It reveals, in microcosm, everything that was mad, bad and dangerous about the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its final stages... This is a hugely enjoyable book that anyone seeking to make sense of the dark side of 20th century Europe would do well to read."―Adam Zamoyski, Literary Review

About the Author

Alexander Watson is professor of history at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I, which won the Wolfson History Prize and the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History, and Enduring the Great War, winner of the Fraenkel Prize.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Illustrated edition (February 25, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1541697308
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1541697300
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #697,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #950 in World War I History (Books)
- #1,622 in Russian History (Books)
- #17,997 in World History (Books)

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Alexander Watson

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Alexander Watson is Professor of History at Goldsmiths, University of London, in the UK. I specialise in the history of the First World War, especially in Central Europe and on the Eastern Front. My books have won some prestigious prizes. 'Enduring the Great War' won the Fraenkel Prize. 'Ring of Steel' won the Wolfson History Prize, the Guggenheim Lehrman Prize in Military History, the British Army's Military Book of the Year Award and the U.S. Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award. The book was named the 'Sunday Times History Book of the Year' for 2014.

My latest book is 'The Fortress. The Great Siege of Przemysl'. This tells the exciting story of the First World War's longest siege, and traces how the brutal fighting and anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing which were to ravage Eastern Europe in the twentieth century began already in 1914. The book won the U.S. Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award and was a 'Financial Times' Book of the Year for 2020.

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Hal Jordan

Uses a little known World War I battle to make wider points

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2020

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I had never previously read of the siege of Przemysl, which was a fortress in the part of Galicia that in 1914 was controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The siege played an important role in the struggle over Galicia between the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Armies. Watson gives a full account of the details of the siege, relying on primary sources--he must be fluent in multiple languages! But his main point, I think, is to use the siege to discuss how World War I shattered the previous arrangements in Eastern Europe beyond recovery and provided a preview of the horrors that were to beset that region during the following decades.

Lately, there have a number of efforts to rehabilitate the Austro-Hungarian Empire and I think Watson would probably agree with that approach. My impression is that until fairly recently the Empire was seen as a forced agglomeration of peoples whose striving for national identity had been suppressed for centuries. In fact, as Watson discusses, the Empire had done a reasonable job in accommodating those nationalities in a peaceful way. Certainly, in contrast to what happened during the war and in the following decades, the Empire looks like the epitome of toleration and enlightenment. How things would have played out if the Empire had managed to avoid the war, we'll never know, of course. But it could hardly have been worse than what actually happened.

Watson writes well and the book moves at a good pace. At only 270 pages, the book is more readable than many war books that yield to the temptation of belaboring details that the average reader isn't much interested in. In any war book, maps are crucial. The ones in this book are excellent. Literally every town is shown on at least one of the maps and the detailed map of the fortress indicates every place that is mentioned in the account of the siege.

26 people found this helpful

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Andreas Wozny

The coming of the Bloodlands

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2021

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The siege of what? All attempts to sound out the fortress' name remained unsuccessful so I looked it up: Shehmihshuhl. I had heard about the fortress, but I didn't really know more than that over a hundred thousand soldiers went into captivity when the city fell in early 1915. It was just another disaster in a series of defeats for the Austro-Hungarian Army during the first few months of the Great War. All that is changed now after reading this book.

The book showed the distrust of the various ethnicities in Galicia. Austria-Hungarians distrusted the Jewish and the Ruthene populations. The Russians distrusted the Ukrainians, the Poles and the Jews. That was leading to atrocities against the perceived enemies and the Jews got the worst of it. It also set the stage for what later was to become the so called Bloodlands. I didn't know that there was a difference between Ukrainians and Ruthene, that the Poles suppressed the Ruthene and the Jews even before the war, and that the main differences between all the various groups were rather religious than nationalistic.

The description of the daily life in the fortress, the hunger, diseases, the appalling behavior of the officer corps towards their men, hopes and shattered hopes really make this a great read. Before reading this I was thrown aback that so many soldiers surrendered, but after reading the book I was amazed they held out for so long. The book ends with a look beyond the siege and towards present day, hitting the major points of the town's history.

I liked the author's style and will definitely read his other WW1 book the Ring of Steel.

3 people found this helpful

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Ricky B

Good details on a fairly unknown siege

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2020

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The book described the actions of the siege well. There was detail, and a lot of personal level of presentation, along with the unit level information. However, there was a significant amount of the book focused on post-WW1 results, which not only weren't a part of the siege, but were a stretch to even tie back to the siege itself from a historical perspective. That was a distraction and wasn't well supported anyway, but should have been a different book.

6 people found this helpful

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Mike H.

A history book with relevance.

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2022

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Fascinating book on a WW I struggle with implications still to this day. Shows how racial, religious and political turmoil have been happening in the region of Ukraine, Poland and Russia for quite some time. We'll researched and written, highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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Arnold Frank

Eastern Front Classic

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2021

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As an Amateur historian, of The Great War, I am very happy to see new histories of the Eastern Front. This is a great subject and the book is a great resource. It is also a page turner as each chapter leads into the next part of the Fortress siege. Ring of Steel, by same author, also wonderful.

One person found this helpful

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FatBoyj

Great history book

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2021

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Well written and informative book of a part of the Great War that usually not covered in western histories of the First World War. This book along with Dr. Prit Buttar’s series on the Eastern Front of World War 1 are highly recommended and are essential reading

3 people found this helpful

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Steve from Boulder

Perhaps history's most important but unknown battle

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2020

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Very interesting book about a very important battle in WW1. It helps us understand the magnitude of WW1 and the human impact it had. We know something about the western front, but this tells us about one of the key events in the eastern side of the war.

3 people found this helpful

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John P McCarthy

historical document

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2022

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well written

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Caleb

Great story of blunder and bravery

Reviewed in Germany on September 8, 2023

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Excellent book and followed very well after "Fall of the Double Eagle" by John Schindler. Great pairing of books.

Miriam M. Saif

Excellent Book on current situation in International Relations.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2020

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I have taught courses in International Relations at the University level on several occasions throughout my life, and I have found this book to be especially interesting in putting things into proper perspective. Needless to say, I have shared many of this book's observations with my students who, in the recent past, have been from Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Netherlands and China.

One person found this helpful

ヘルムート・ヴィルベーグ

ロシアvsオーストリアの要塞攻防戦

Reviewed in Japan on September 26, 2021

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日本ではWW1の要塞攻防戦と言えば西部戦線のヴェルダンを巡る攻防戦や、規模ははるかに小規模ですが、我が国が関わった青島要塞攻略戦が有名ですが、欧米ではWW1緒戦の東部戦線で戦われたオーストリア軍が守るPremysl要塞をロシア軍が攻めた攻防戦も有名です。
本書はその様なPremysl要塞攻防戦を軍事以外の側面からも描いています。「エッ、そうだったの」と言う目から鱗の記述も沢山あります。興味がある方はどうぞ。

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