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A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire Hardcover – Illustrated, April 29, 2014

4.3 out of 5 stars 334

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Exceptionally accessible to the general reader, Wawro offers a picture of an Austro-Hungarian leadership that was reckless in the extreme...with a fatalistic sense of 'now or never.'" ―Wall Street Journal

"
A Mad Catastrophe finally brings some clarity to how the death of one Archduke, while admittedly tragic, could lead to the deaths of millions.... Wawro's excellently written book, in chilling detail, explains all the frustrating and infuriating blundering. The war was completely senseless, the insane war-lust of a failing state; this book gives Austria-Hungary its rightful, starring role as cause of the conflict." ―San Francisco Book Review

"Wawro writes about the Austro-Hungarian Empire's role in the start and unfolding of the Great War with verve, inescapable black humour and a certain note of there-but-for-the-grace-of-God."―
Macleans

"Wawro is a historian of the US military, but his damning portrait of the neurotic empire...well reflects the surreal fiction of Hasek and Musil."―
Literary Review, UK

"
A Mad Catastrophe is a welcome contribution to the small but growing number of scholarly studies of the eastern front that have appeared in English over the last few years."―BBC History Magazine

"In a year glutted with first world war books, this study stands out for its devastating portrayal of the reckless diplomacy, internal political disarray and incompetent battlefield leadership that dragged Austro-Hungary towards the abyss in 1914. Wawro...offers a remarkably fresh and unsentimental analysis of an empire on its last legs."―
Financial Times Best History Books of 2014

"2014 marks the centennial of the outbreak of World War I, and Geoffrey Wawro's
A Mad Catastrophe is a welcome addition to the growing list of books covering the causes and development of the horrific war.... Accompanied by detailed maps, his descriptions are blow-by-blow accounts, all written in lively prose. His is a sad story of carnage and destruction that drives home, yet again, the futility and stupidity of this 'Great War.'"―Providence Journal

"2014 marks the centennial of the outbreak of World War I, and Geoffrey Wawro's
A Mad Catastrophe is a welcome addition to the growing list of books covering the causes and development of the horrific war.... Accompanied by detailed maps, his descriptions are blow-by-blow accounts, all written in lively prose. His is a sad story of carnage and destruction that drives home, yet again, the futility and stupidity of this 'Great War.'"―Providence Journal

"An engaging case study in the disaster that can happen when interests and capabilities get greatly out of kilter.... Readable and entertaining."―
Army Magazine

"A riveting account of a neglected face of WWI."―
Military History

"
A Mad Catastrophe is a highly readable and cogently argued book that, once again, shows the level of sheer idiocy that lay behind this pivotal period of history."―History of War, UK

"A fascinating addition to the military and diplomatic scholarship surrounding Austria-Hungary's inept move toward war and its incompetent execution of the conflict.... Wawro's book is an excellent account of where plunging over a cliff will land you: in pieces."―
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History

"Wawro's authoritative account is a damning analysis of an empire and a people unready for war."―
Publishers Weekly

"Wawro offers a crucial insight into the Eastern Front.... On this centennial of the Great War's beginning, Wawro has composed a thoroughly researched and well-written account, mercilessly debunking any nostalgia for the old monarch and the deeply dysfunctional empire over which he presided."―
Kirkus Reviews

"Wawro's contribution lies in his focus on how the overall decline of Austria-Hungary broke relations with the Balkan states and Russia and how its military blundering caused its ultimate destruction. A worthwhile read."―
Library Journal

"The most important study of the Eastern Front in decades, Wawro's brilliant and thoroughly researched narrative easily replaces existing books on the subject. Eschewing the Radetzky March nostalgia which so often suffuses books on the last years of the Dual Monarchy, Wawro summons forth a searing indictment of the lethal Austro-Hungarian blundering which helped unleash the First World War and brought all the horrors of the modern age to Eastern Europe."―
Sean McMeekin, author of July 1914: Countdown to War

"A distinctly unique and long overdue contribution to the historiography of early WWI. The aficionados of Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August and Istvan Szabo's film Colonel Redl will find this a marvelous, engrossing and distinctly well written read that gives necessary balance to the already well-covered narrative of WWI's Western Front.... Master historian Geoff Wawro does a tour de force job in colorfully bringing this to light."―
Brigadier General Peter Zwack, US Army

"
A Mad Catastrophe systematically eviscerates Austria-Hungary's final, fatal efforts to play the role of a great power. Wawro presents a case study of culpable, comprehensive, synergistic incompetence at every level of policy-making, strategic planning, and operational effectiveness. A decaying empire went to war fecklessly, conducted war haphazardly, and pulled Europe down into its final vortex. Brilliantly acerbic and comprehensively researched, this is a book difficult to put down."―Dennis Showalter, author of Patton and Rommel: Men of War in the 20th Century

"
A Mad Catastrophe is an absorbing and shocking look at a now neglected aspect of the origins of the First World War. The author--a master military historian, whose works are standard accounts of late nineteenth century Austro-Prussian wars--shows just how reckless Viennese policy before and after the outbreak of hostilities was. Wawro's book should be on every reading list and in the hands of every policymaker."―Brendan Simms, author of Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy from 1453 to the Present

"This is not just a story of the part played by the Hapsburg Empire in precipitating the First World War, and of the truly lamentable performance of its armies once the war began. It is a devastating indictment of a whole regime, whose slovenly incompetence resulted in a military catastrophe of which Geoff Wawro gives a truly horrifying account. Of all the histories of 1914 that are now pouring from the press, this will rank among the very best." ―
Sir Michael Howard

About the Author

Geoffrey Wawro is professor of history and director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas and the author of six books, including A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire. Wawro lives in Dallas, Texas.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; 1st edition (April 29, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 472 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465028357
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465028351
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.035 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 334

About the author

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Geoffrey Wawro
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History has always fascinated me, for it marks and foreshadows the never-ending follies and triumphs of man. As a military historian, I was trained to think in terms of governments, armies, fleets, and sweeping change, but, as a practitioner, up to my elbows in the dust of archives, I glimpsed something new. History is made by individuals, not masses and movements. Read my books on the German Wars of Unification or World War I, and you'll see how distracted, dilettantish or simply inept human beings fumbled away great opportunities, and let "forces of history," that might otherwise have been reversed or contained, sweep over them. I've always augmented research on these wars with visits to the battlefields, in places like the Czech Republic, France, Poland, Ukraine, Serbia, Syria, Israel, Lebanon or Egypt. Only there, on the proverbial "captain's hill," can the historian finally put all of the pieces together, and see how victory or defeat was achieved.

My latest book is Sons of Freedom: The Forgotten American Soldiers Who Defeated Germany in World War I. It is a riveting book that shows just how crucial the A.E.F. was to Allied victory in 1918. Without the U.S. intervention and hard fighting, the British and French would have been unable to win the war, and would probably have lost it -- as the book demonstrates. My book A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire is a deep dive into the shambles of the Habsburg Empire in its waning years and its truly abysmal performance in the Great War. My two books on Bismarck's wars, The Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War, are fascinating reexaminations of the two most consequential wars in nineteenth century Europe. They are deftly written and based on a wealth of archival research, distinguishing them from other histories based on less reliable and revealing published sources. Warfare and Society in Europe 1792-1914 was required reading in West Point's History of the Military Art course for several years. The U.S. Military Academy chose it, over many competitors, because of the taut and interesting way in which it presents the interplay of politics, society, diplomacy, technology, and military decision-making in the action-packed years between the French Revolution and World War I. Read it to see why it was the choice of the Army's service academy before they transitioned to an online curriculum.

My book on the Middle East -- Quicksand -- is a highly readable history of the Middle East from the Balfour Declaration to the Bush Doctrine. Sourced in British and American archives -- using much previously classified material -- it does something new: it explains how the U.S. emerged in the years between Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama as the dominant power in the Middle East, but with such burdensome, debilitating liabilities. It explains how and why we crafted alliances that don't even benefit us, and a regional dominance that erodes us.

History is eye-opening. It's the enemy of sentiment, and the shovel that digs up the truth. Follow me on: geoffreywawro.com

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
334 global ratings
Masterful Military Analysis but Lacked Balance
4 Stars
Masterful Military Analysis but Lacked Balance
I became a fan of Greg Wawro after reading his military history, the Austro-Prussian War. Like that book, A Mad Catastrophe is meticulously researched and makes for fascinating reading for those of us, like myself, that love history and particularly military history. The sad fate of the Austro-Hungarian army in 1914 is explained in detail and includes, in Wawro's opinion, many sources. My criticism of the book is that it is not a balanced portrayal of Austria-Hungary vis a vis the other great powers of Europe, nor was the blundering and mistakes of its military commander unique. Conrad von Hotzendorf was in good company in 1914.The illusion that armies must attack at all costs, that the offensive was the crucial, essential ingredient to military success in 1914 was hardly confined to Conrad or Austria. The exact same philosophy and it disastrous consequences were embraced by France's Joffre, Italy's Cadorna and many other commanders The British headlong, mass attacks against entrenched infantry with machine guns and artillery in the Battle of the Somme which resulted in over 600,000 casualties took place in 1916. You would think an "advanced" power like Britain and its commander, Haig, would have learned by then not to do this. Austria was not unique at all in failing to initially recognize the futility of mass shock tactics by infantry in the industrial age by any measure, but you would never understand that by reading this book. Likewise, the shell and ammunition shortages that plagued the logistics of the Imperial army were also experienced by Britain, Russia and the other great powers and for the same reasons. Nobody expected a war to last more than a few months and had not prepared accordingly.Wawro is highly critical of the society and politics of the Empire, attributing the "rot" within to its defeats in the field. Again, the critique has merit, certainly, but compared to what? The tsarist regime in Russia? The Ottoman Empire in Turkey? The Italian monarchy? The thing that distinguished Austria from so many of the other great powers was its low investment in its military establishment and its near half century of peace since its defeat in 1866. It also had many aggressive enemies willing to attack it for the sole purpose of tearing off provinces and territory to satisfy their own ambition. Wawro glosses over the fact that the Serbian regime in 1914 was riddled with fanatical imperialists with the declared goal of annexing Austrian Bosnia, Croatia and Dalmatia to create a greater Serbian state, whether they liked it or not and by force if need be. Serbia provoked the war by committing a terrorist act that no sovereign country would ever allow to go unanswered. Austria was not goaded into war by Germany but viewed its situation in 1914 like any other nation would and felt it had to respond to a threat to survive. Christopher Clark's fairly new book, The Sleepwalkers, explores all this in detail and gives a far more balanced account of the causes and origins of the war that you will not get here.Austria-Hungary was a unique, cosmopolitan Empire unlike any in Europe in that no single national group made up anything close to a majority. The faults of the Emperor and the Empire were mainly that they were too lenient with the more fanatical leaders of some of the minorities, but with the accession of Franz Ferdinand, how things might have changed. In the meantime, Austrian and Hungarian society blossomed, producing some of the best artists, composers, medicine, economists, psychologists and philosophers in European history. What came after, when the Empire collapsed after the war makes the troubles and problems with which the kaiser and his cabinets grappled in the years before the war look tame by comparison.I commend the book from a military history point of view as the best I have ever read in explaining the military campaigns of the opening year of the war in the East. I will read any book by Greg Wawro who is unquestionably one of our best military historians today. I just wish that this book had a bit more perspective and balance.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2014
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Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2015
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4.0 out of 5 stars Masterful Military Analysis but Lacked Balance
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2015
I became a fan of Greg Wawro after reading his military history, the Austro-Prussian War. Like that book, A Mad Catastrophe is meticulously researched and makes for fascinating reading for those of us, like myself, that love history and particularly military history. The sad fate of the Austro-Hungarian army in 1914 is explained in detail and includes, in Wawro's opinion, many sources. My criticism of the book is that it is not a balanced portrayal of Austria-Hungary vis a vis the other great powers of Europe, nor was the blundering and mistakes of its military commander unique. Conrad von Hotzendorf was in good company in 1914.

The illusion that armies must attack at all costs, that the offensive was the crucial, essential ingredient to military success in 1914 was hardly confined to Conrad or Austria. The exact same philosophy and it disastrous consequences were embraced by France's Joffre, Italy's Cadorna and many other commanders The British headlong, mass attacks against entrenched infantry with machine guns and artillery in the Battle of the Somme which resulted in over 600,000 casualties took place in 1916. You would think an "advanced" power like Britain and its commander, Haig, would have learned by then not to do this. Austria was not unique at all in failing to initially recognize the futility of mass shock tactics by infantry in the industrial age by any measure, but you would never understand that by reading this book. Likewise, the shell and ammunition shortages that plagued the logistics of the Imperial army were also experienced by Britain, Russia and the other great powers and for the same reasons. Nobody expected a war to last more than a few months and had not prepared accordingly.

Wawro is highly critical of the society and politics of the Empire, attributing the "rot" within to its defeats in the field. Again, the critique has merit, certainly, but compared to what? The tsarist regime in Russia? The Ottoman Empire in Turkey? The Italian monarchy? The thing that distinguished Austria from so many of the other great powers was its low investment in its military establishment and its near half century of peace since its defeat in 1866. It also had many aggressive enemies willing to attack it for the sole purpose of tearing off provinces and territory to satisfy their own ambition. Wawro glosses over the fact that the Serbian regime in 1914 was riddled with fanatical imperialists with the declared goal of annexing Austrian Bosnia, Croatia and Dalmatia to create a greater Serbian state, whether they liked it or not and by force if need be. Serbia provoked the war by committing a terrorist act that no sovereign country would ever allow to go unanswered. Austria was not goaded into war by Germany but viewed its situation in 1914 like any other nation would and felt it had to respond to a threat to survive. Christopher Clark's fairly new book, The Sleepwalkers, explores all this in detail and gives a far more balanced account of the causes and origins of the war that you will not get here.

Austria-Hungary was a unique, cosmopolitan Empire unlike any in Europe in that no single national group made up anything close to a majority. The faults of the Emperor and the Empire were mainly that they were too lenient with the more fanatical leaders of some of the minorities, but with the accession of Franz Ferdinand, how things might have changed. In the meantime, Austrian and Hungarian society blossomed, producing some of the best artists, composers, medicine, economists, psychologists and philosophers in European history. What came after, when the Empire collapsed after the war makes the troubles and problems with which the kaiser and his cabinets grappled in the years before the war look tame by comparison.

I commend the book from a military history point of view as the best I have ever read in explaining the military campaigns of the opening year of the war in the East. I will read any book by Greg Wawro who is unquestionably one of our best military historians today. I just wish that this book had a bit more perspective and balance.
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12 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2014
6 people found this helpful
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T. Krieps
5.0 out of 5 stars Seriously a must read
Reviewed in Germany on December 16, 2019
William C. Mahaney
5.0 out of 5 stars the failure on the part of the Hapsburg Empire’s military chief Conrad von Hötzendorf and his generals to bring the army up to t
Reviewed in Canada on September 2, 2014
6 people found this helpful
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Andrea
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
Reviewed in Italy on May 21, 2015
Phillipwh
5.0 out of 5 stars The tragic old duffer who slayed millions
Reviewed in Australia on September 30, 2015
Dierregi
4.0 out of 5 stars Very detailed and limited in scope
Reviewed in Italy on December 14, 2023