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Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914–1918 (Cambridge Military Histories) 1st Edition

by Alexander Watson (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 15 ratings
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This book is an innovative comparative history of how German and British soldiers endured the horror of the First World War. Unlike existing literature, which emphasises the strength of societies or military institutions, this study argues that at the heart of armies' robustness lay natural human resilience. Drawing widely on contemporary letters and diaries of British and German soldiers, psychiatric reports and official documentation, and interpreting these sources with modern psychological research, this unique account provides fresh insights into the soldiers' fears, motivations and coping mechanisms. It explains why the British outlasted their opponents by examining and comparing the motives for fighting, the effectiveness with which armies and societies supported men and the combatants' morale throughout the conflict on both sides. Finally it challenges the consensus on the war's end, arguing that not a 'covert strike' but rather an 'ordered surrender' led by junior officers brought about Germany's defeat in 1918.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0521123089
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0521123082
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Cambridge University Press
  5. Publication date
    November 12, 2009
  6. Part of series
    Cambridge Military Histories
  7. Language
    English
  8. Dimensions
    6 x 0.77 x 9 inches
  9. Print length
    308 pages
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Alexander Watson’s Enduring the Great War is certainly a must-read for all students of World War I, as well as those who write about it. Ably written and nicely illustrated, this study boasts an impressive depth of research in fifteen archives, repositories, and collections in Britain and Germany. ... [It] belongs on the shelf of any scholar who aspires to be current on the literature of twentieth-century Europe." Professor Eric Dorn Brose, Drexel University, History: Reviews of New Books

"A superbly researched monograph on a difficult subject ... as an instrument for further research on the subject, it is without parallel ... all university libraries will want to acquire it--as well as all departments of history and departments of British, German, and war studies." -Professor Antoine Capet, Université de Rouen, H-Net Reviews

"This is a new and fresh analysis of the performance of the British and German Armies on the Western Front drawing on post-war research, reports from censors and other contemporary official sources and diaries of combat veteran. It is replete with useful statistics and statistical analysis...." --Len Shurtleff, The Listening Post

"This is an extremely good book, which makes a significant contribution to the history of the First World War and to the wider study of combat effectiveness. Alexander Watson has analysed a wide range of primary sources in an original manner: the result is a stimulating work that will become required reading. … [His] ability to incorporate the information he has gathered in a readable volume is truly impressive. … This book blends military, social, cultural, and psychological history with panache. … It is to be hoped that it will be both example and provocation for further, similarly brilliant work, which will test its arguments and approach on other fronts and other nations." Dr. Dan Todman, Queen Mary University of London, War in History

"With its impressive use of archival evidence, its mastery of the relevant secondary literature, and its scrupulously fair-minded treatment of the German army, this book is well worth reading for anyone who seeks a glimpse inside the minds of the men, both British and German, who fought the Great War." Dr. Jesse Kauffman, Stanford University, H-Net

"an exciting comparative study". -TLS

"...an exhaustively researched, elegant, and argumentative book that deserves wide readership." -Adam R. Seipp, Military History

"This book represents an impressive achievement of research and argument." -Larry L. Ping, German Studies Review

Book Description

A comparative history of how German and British soldiers endured the horror of the First World War.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (November 12, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 308 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0521123089
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521123082
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.77 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

About the author

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Alexander Watson

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.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
15 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Cody Carlson
5.0 out of 5 stars An Important- and Highly Readable- Book on Life in the WWI Trenches!
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2018
Verified Purchase
I just read Alexander Watson's "Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918" for a PhD course I'm taking on World War I. In the book, Watson sets out to answer three questions: Why did soldiers and armies in the First World War fight for such a long time? How were they able to cope psychologically with conditions at the front? And why did they eventually stop fighting? The book answers these important questions in very enlightening ways. Watson address how men dealt with the daily fear of death or mutilation at the front, noting that more intelligent soldiers could more easily believe they would make it through alive. After all, they knew that a relatively few shells that were fired would result in a hit, so it was easy for them to cling to an unwarranted optimism about their chances. Also, Watson noted, these soldiers didn't focus on the big picture of surviving the war, but rather dealt with the more immediate tasks of getting through the day or the week. The importance of junior officers in dealing with the men was also a major factor for both armies during the war, with more paternalistic officers who were willing to share risk and misery being more popular and obeyed. Watson wrote on the collapse of the German army in 1918, indicating that it did not fall about because of mutinies or communist subversion. Rather, Watson wrote, "the German army's disintegration was first and foremost the product of apathetic indifference" (230). It was not men turning against the lieutenants and captains in order to surrender, Watson wrote. It was was the lieutenants and captains who led their men into surrender after the day to day numbing of the life in the trenches with no prospect of victory became unbearable.

This is not a book for those looking to learn a bit more about World War I. This is a serious in depth study on life in the trenches that draws from a wide array of primary and secondary sources- a book that serious students of the Great War will find very enlightening and useful. Having said that, however for such an informative and highly scholarly work, Watson's book is very readable. I highly recommend this book to serious students of history who desire to learn just how life in the trenches on the Western Front played out.
6 people found this helpful
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Bruce Cockburn
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting insights into the collapse of the German army in 1918
Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2017
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A sometimes long-winded but still very interesting study of the key factors that allowed soldiers on the British and German sides to endure the stresses and horrors of the Western Front. The discussion of the factors that caused the ultimate collapse of the German army in the fall of 1918 was especially insightful. I was quite surprised to learn of the important role played by junior German officers in facilitating mass surrenders of platoon and company sized units, which significantly undermined the fighting effectiveness of the German army in the last months of the war. The German army that was defeated in the Hundred Days Offensive was not the same force that held the Allies at bay for the four previous years.
2 people found this helpful
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Anthony J. Andrea
5.0 out of 5 stars If you have a good background on the Great War this will certainly fill ...
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2015
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If you have a good background on the Great War this will certainly fill in the detail about how people put up with it for so long.

Would not recommend it for the general reader as it is about the British and German Armies and you would need an appreciation of the massive losses in the big battles like the Somme, Ypres,Paschemdale, Verdun and the Nivelle Offensive to really get the most out of the book.
3 people found this helpful
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Hanagin
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent scholarly work on WW1
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2013
As the other reviewer said, this is not light reading. With a length of some 220+ pages, this takes a surprisingly long time to read--but that is not a condemnation. Although written with a more scholarly audience in mind, this book is accessible reading for anyone interested in the history of the Great War, assuming you already have a general knowledge of the period. Because the author seeks to examine the nature of combat, he does not dwell much on larger events, campaigns or characters. Instead, it is an in-depth examination of the nature of war as experienced on the Western Front. I'd consider myself well-read in the period, and I still found many things that I had not heard before. I especially liked how much the author drew from German language sources, as well as modern psychological research.
8 people found this helpful
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J. L. Throckmorton
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book about combat motivation
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2010
The editorial reviews on this book's Amazon page provide an accurate appraisal of this book. It is an outstanding work on combat motivation, using a broad archive of sources related to the experience of the British and German Armies on the Western Front. In college I took a course on leadership and Lord Moran's classic "Anatomy of Courage" was required reading. This book is a worthy successor and should be on the syllabus of every military academy and ROTC program.

The author touches on how individual risk assessments, soldier coping mechanisms, small group cohesion and socialization, and command leadership at battalion and below all combine to affect combat motivation.

I'll note that while this book is relatively short and well-written, it is not a quick read. The author makes so many insightful points that I frequently paused to reflect and apply his conclusions to other conflicts and my own experiences. The author wisely limits the scope of his remarks just to the World War I British and Western Front Germans, but his insights could apply to just about any army or war for 50 years before or after the Great War.
14 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

E. W. Sharman
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone interested in the history of world war 1.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2023
Verified Purchase
This is a great book by an author who has brought a fresh view to the conflict on the western front. The look at why both sides fought on to the end and how one crumbled was to me fresh and engaging with a lot of sources I had not come across before. The style is very readable and balanced worth getting.
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Charles Wellington
4.0 out of 5 stars Has Field Marshal Haig Been Underestimated?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2015
Verified Purchase
Tough reading but the first serious English study of the difficulties of the German Army in WW1. Makes one think that the German army in Flanders suffered much more than the English & Commonwealth. This in turn work prompts me to think that the critics of Haig (who was hoping that one big push would crack the German army) could have been too critical. Haig was entitled to rely on his instincts as well as an unsatisfactory head of intelligence, Charteris.,perhaps Professor Sheffield should be invited to review Dr Watson's book.
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J. D. Stanton
4.0 out of 5 stars Enduring the Great War: Combat, Morale and Collapse in the German and British Armies, 1914-1918
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2010
Verified Purchase
If one considers that the truth about both the British & German Armies as being symbolised by an onion. Then this book strips away many of the layers of the propaganda and stereotyped impression built up by years of Propaganda misleading "histories"i.e. Books written without access to the facts and for that matter Films both War Time and Subsequent.

It is refreshing through this book to get closer to what happened, how it was dealt with at most levels and the disillusionment and reaction to politicians that followed
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Mike
4.0 out of 5 stars Despite the title, mainly about the German army on the Western Front
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2013
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Based on the author's PhD thesis, this book looks mainly at the morale of the German army on the Western Front, but also the British Army. The collapse referred to in the sub-title is of the German Army!. It is based on letters, intelligence and combat reports. It is an extremely useful contribution, but I feel a better discussion of what actually comprsies and contributes to morale would have made it more useful.
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