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The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End Hardcover – November 15, 2016
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Winner of the Tomlinson Book Prize
A Times Literary Supplement Best Book of 2016
An epic, groundbreaking account of the ethnic and state violence that followed the end of World War I―conflicts that would shape the course of the twentieth century.
For the Western Allies, November 11, 1918, has always been a solemn date―the end of fighting that had destroyed a generation, but also a vindication of a terrible sacrifice with the total collapse of the principal enemies: the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. But for much of the rest of Europe this was a day with no meaning, as a continuing, nightmarish series of conflicts engulfed country after country.
In The Vanquished, a highly original and gripping work of history, Robert Gerwarth asks us to think again about the true legacy of the First World War. In large part it was not the fighting on the Western Front that proved so ruinous to Europe’s future, but the devastating aftermath, as countries on both sides of the original conflict were savaged by revolutions, pogroms, mass expulsions, and further major military clashes. In the years immediately after the armistice, millions would die across central, eastern, and southeastern Europe before the Soviet Union and a series of rickety and exhausted small new states would come into being. It was here, in the ruins of Europe, that extreme ideologies such as fascism would take shape and ultimately emerge triumphant.
As absorbing in its drama as it is unsettling in its analysis, The Vanquished is destined to transform our understanding of not just the First World War but the twentieth century as a whole.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFarrar, Straus and Giroux
- Publication dateNovember 15, 2016
- Dimensions6.5 x 2.5 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-100374282455
- ISBN-13978-0374282455
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Editorial Reviews
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“[Gerwarth's] account is both important and timely, and obliges us to reconsider a period and a battle front that has too often been neglected by historians . . . Well-researched and engrossing.” ―Margaret MacMillan, The New York Times Book Review
“For many of the Great War's defeated nations and peoples, as Robert Gerwarth shows brilliantly in The Vanquished, the full course of strife and bloodshed ended only in late 1923 . . . Based on a staggering range of primary materials and secondary literature, The Vanquished fills a vast canvas . . . [A] path-breaking study.” ―Brendan Simms, The Wall Street Journal
"Utterly fascinating . . . [The Vanquished] probes deeply into an area of this intensely-studied war that comparatively few studies take on at such length and detail . . . The long after-effects of the Great War are painted with comprehensive skill in these pages; it’s an account unlike any other in the crowded field of WWI studies . . . Vital reading, essential for any student of the First World War." ―Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly
“This narrative of continent-wide chaos makes it easier to understand why order came to seem a supremely desirable objective in 1930s Europe, trumping freedom . . . it helps us understand why few wars reach tidy conclusions: once a society has suspended its instinctive, social and legal prejudice against killing, it often proves hard to restore.” ―Max Hastings, The Sunday Times
“Gerwarth fills The Vanquished with illuminating quotations and stories that pull together a complex narrative about the uneasy peace of the late Twenties and shine a piercing light into darkened corners of history . . . The Vanquished is an unnerving reminder of how stubbornly some geopolitical fault-lines endure.” ―Sinclair McKay, The Telegraph
“A mixture of fast-paced narrative and fluent analysis of the turmoil that unfolded in the lands of the four shattered empires, as well as Greece and Italy, either side of the November 1918 armistice on the western front. Gerwarth demonstrates with an impressive concentration of detail that in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe the carnage of the first world war by no means came to an end, as it did for the British and French, in late 1918.” ―Tony Barber, Financial Times
“Gerwarth has synthesized an enormous range of primary and secondary sources in half a dozen languages. Combining a big-picture overview with close-up detail - we hear the voices of soldiers, politicians, civilians - Gerwarth has written a vivid if disturbing account of a crucial period in 20th century history.” ―Matthew Price, The National
“Searing and vivid . . . a timely reminder that the roots of century-long violence can be traced back to the cataclysmic end of the Great War.” ―Richard Overy, Literary Review
“Gerwarth's fascinating and finely crafted book is a rich combination of military, political, cultural and social history. He makes good use of literary sources and witness testimony to bring the events he narrates to life . . . an impressive work of highly accessible scholarship.” ―Geoffrey Roberts, Irish Times
“This is an important and compelling book with a fascinating and chilling narrative ... Gerwarth reveals how the forgotten postwar violence comprised a key step on Europe's descent into darkness.” ―Alexander Watson, BBC History Magazine
“While Gerwarth's warfare theories are cogent and convincing, he never loses sight of the human dimension. He skillfully avoids the danger of getting bogged down in a mass of detail, livening up his narrative by using contemporary quotes from politicians, soldiers and writers. One mark of a good history book is that it allows the reader to see familiar events from a new perspective . . . [i]n this respect, The Vanquished is an exceptional history book.” ―Andrew Lynch, Sunday Post Business Magazine
“[Gerwarth] shines a light on what is, from a western European point of view, a somewhat obscure and relatively short period of time . . . from the layman's vantage point, it is so well written that it reads like a novel. Tragically, for the people killed, wounded and forced to flee from their homes, it is not. This book is well worth the read. ―Frank MacGabhann, Irish Independent
“This fine and timely study makes a compelling case for the argument that the bloody aftermath of the war did more to destroy European civilisation than the declarations of war in 1914 . . . at a time when Vladimir Putin seems intent on regaining Tsarist Russia's frontiers, and the map of the Middle East drawn by the victorious powers becomes ever more blurred, we might well ask whether the First World War has ended yet.” ―A.W. Purdue, Times Higher Education Supplement
“A clear and excellent account of the abrupt break-up of the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Ottoman and Romanov empires and the difficult birth of their successor states during 1917-23.” ―History of War Reviews
“Gerwarth provides an essential contribution to our understanding of the interwar years.” ―Jay Freeman, Booklist
“Controversial, persuasive, and impressively documented.” ―Publishers Weekly
“The first study of the disorders that shook all the defeated states of Europe following World War . . . In this extensively researched and crisply written account, Gerwarth explores the political and military upheavals throughout central Europe . . . A thorough explanation for the rise of the nationalist and fascist groups who set the stage for World War II.” ―Kirkus Reviews
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Product details
- Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition (November 15, 2016)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0374282455
- ISBN-13 : 978-0374282455
- Item Weight : 3.05 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 2.5 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,418 in World War I History (Books)
- #2,494 in German History (Books)
- #26,863 in World History (Books)
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It seems obvious, when pointed out, that WWI led to the disintegration of the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires. As should have been expected, these were not peaceful disintegrations as various political elements within each empire sought independence for their segment of the empire, or sought to impose their view of a new political order caused by the post-war vacuum of power. In fact, even leaving out deaths caused by starvation and the influenza, over four million people died because of post-war conflict – more than the combined WWI casualties of Britain, France, and the United States.
Gerwarth identifies three different types of “civil wars” that occurred after WWI. The first type was the more traditional conflict between new national armies such as Poland vs. Russia, Greece vs. Turkey, and the Romanian invasion of Hungary. Another type of “civil war” occurred within nations such as the well know conflicts internal to Germany and Russia, which saw Russia trying to regain national territories lost with the breakup of its empire. And the last type of civil war was social/national revolutions the truly manifested themselves in two radical variants – Bolshevism and Fascism. Of course, to complicate matters, these three types of civil war often overlapped each other within a paradigm of existential conflict to eliminate ethnic or class enemies.
"The Vanquished" examines many of the key conflicts that occurred during these year; the political and ethnic drivers of war along with the leadership. It should come as no surprise that a large part of the book covers the breakup of Russia and the impact of Bolshevism, and it looks at rise of Fascism; in fact the book also reviews the impact of political radicalism of the left and right and their impact on conflict and the suppression of democracy and minority rights. It also examines post war conflicts between Turkey and Greece, that lasted until 1922, Poland and Russia, Romania and Hungary, and Finland and Russia.
We often think wars have clear beginnings and ends. This is certainly true of WWI when the war “ended” on November 11, 1918. But the reality is the end of the war created the conditions for years of civil war as the old order fell apart and political and ethnic hopes collided with each other. Gerwarth’s "The Vanquished" does an excellent job of analyzing and documented these forgotten wars that set us up for WWII and, in some ways, still cause problems today.
He also confirms the view of Ian Kershaw in his “To Hell and Back…..” that the Russian Revolution, an outgrowth of the war, paved the way for fascism by dividing the Left and hardening the Right. We see that at the outset where communists under the leadership of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leibknecht die in their attempt to seize power in 1919 Berlin. Similarly an attempt to form a Munich Soviet fails in that year as well. Put simply the Social Democratic government relied on the rightest Freicorps to put down the rebellion. In its aftermath Munich would become the festering ground for the rise of the Nazis. In Hungary Bela Kuhn, a communist, temporarily takes power only to be put down by a counter action from the Right. All the while the Russian civil war rages and within that there are the Russo-Polish and Russo-Finnish Wars, so much for the end of violence in November 1918.
For the Jews of Eastern Europe and Germany the situation turns from bad to worse. On top of the latent anti-Semitism that already existed we have the conflation of Jews with communism as much of the communist leadership in Russia, Germany, Austria and Hungary are Jewish. Thus the way was paved to broaden the appeal of anti-Semitism to much of the middle-class.
Where I think Gerwarth breaks new ground I think is in his discussion on the role of Mustapha Kemal’s success on Mussolini and Hitler. Kemal defeated the Greeks in Turkey and undid the toughest settlement against the Central Powers in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres which made Turkey a vassal of the Allies. In Kemal both Hitler and Mussolini saw his success in the ethnic cleansing of the Greek population in Eastern Anatolia by force and his willingness to stand up to the allies so much so that the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne completely undid the Treaty of Sevres. By the 1930s those lessons were well learned.
There is much more to Gerwarth’s book. He discusses why Italy ended up on the winning side; it still felt like a loser. And he discusses the chaos in the Balkans that we relived once again in the 1990s. Yes, World War I is still not over. Just look at the Middle East.
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• Hostilities ceased at 11.00am on November 11th, 1918
• Britain only got involved in the war to save France and Belgium from German aggression
• The war was fought exclusively on the Western Front between Britain/France and Germany
I recommend reading David Stevenson’s With Our Backs To The Wall, an account of the last year of the “official” war first, then move on to this book. Stevenson’s book serves as an excellent introduction to Gerwarth’sm as it explores in detail the economic and social reasons for the defeat of the Central Powers – great background for understanding how their empires fragmented at the end of the war.
Stevenson is also interesting because he has a different interpretation of events from Gerwarth, particularly regarding the sinister aspects of the United States’ involvement in the war. For example, Stevenson emphasises the US’s insistence on operating independently on the Western Front at a time when British forces were serving under the French Marshal Joffre as Supreme Commander. The US decision was odd given their dependence on the French to supply then with artillery and aircraft, not to mention their completed dependence on the French railways to get US troops to the front lines. Stevenson’s explanation is that the US plan was to build up their troop numbers and get some combat experience in 1918, then launch a major offensive against the Ruhr, Germany’s industrial heartland, in 1919 or 1920. The US would then finish the war, claim all the credit and dominate the peace. Of course, Germany’s collapse in the autumn of 1918 thwarted this American plot. According to Stevenson, the US wanted Britain and France to win but to win “on their knees”, so weakened that their empires would collapse and could then be penetrated by US corporations. Gerwarth skates over this, though he does comment on how far apart the US, Britain and France were in their approach to the Paris Peace Conference of 1918. For example, he says that whereas the French wanted a heavily punished and perpetually weak Germany, Britain wanted a slapped wrists but prosperous Germany because of its close trading relationship with Germany before the war.
However, Gerwarth doesn’t fully explain why Britain got involved in fighting the Ottomans in the Middle East. The potential threat to British rule in India is an obvious reason but surely Britain’s desire to reduce its dependence on the US for oil was a much more crucial reason. Did the author feel it was too obvious to mention? It shouldn’t have been. At that time Mesopotamia and Persia were the only known sources of oil outside the US. Churchill had switched the Royal Navy from coal to oil in 1911, realising that oil would be the major strategic energy source of the Twentieth Century, and no one of Churchill’s generation was comfortable about being dependent on the US for oil.
I have another quibble. The author refers to the Irish War of Independence and Civil War of 1919 – 1922, but doesn’t go into any detail. I would have thought that this conflict deserves as much attention as events in Bulgaria, Greece etc. and I hope the failure to explore it is not due to the author’s being based in Dublin. Was it too hot a potato to handle nearly a century on?
That said, this is an excellent book and I would recommend it to anyone seeking to understand why the Great War, sadly, was not the war to end all wars.








