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Title: The Pity of War: Explaining World War I by Niall Ferguson ISBN: 0-465-05712-8 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 10 March, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.41 (44 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: "A refreshing variant on an otherwise sterile debate"
Comment: I was not expecting to like this book. In fact, I very nearly avoided it altogether based on the overwhelmingly negative reviews by some of the leading scholars of strategic studies. In a fascinating exchange on Slate.com in June 1999, Eliot Cohen (my academic advisor, mentor and good friend) and Paul Fussell competed with one another over which one disliked Ferguson's history more, describing his work alternatively as "smarty," "pedantic," "inane," and "irritating."
In the Summer 2001 issue of National Interest, Michael Howard, the doyen of war studies, was decidedly cool to the conclusions in The Pity of War, although not hostile to Ferguson' alternative approach, which he called "a refreshing variant on an otherwise sterile debate." In a separate 2001 interview Michael Howard claimed that the biggest breakthrough in the field of military history in his lifetime had been the "study of 'total history'; history studied in real depth and width."
It seems to me this is precisely what Ferguson's work provides and why it should be recommended. This is a book on war filled with charts and graphs showing the movement of bond prices, not battle maps showing the movement of divisions. If this book were written by a lesser talent, it would have been an embarrassing failure. But Ferguson writes extremely well and (perhaps more importantly given the recondite subject matter) his chapters are neatly laid out and his main points are clearly elucidated. Clearly elucidated -- and outlandish.
The book reads as if it were ghost-written by Alfred von Wegerer, the head of Germany's Center for the Study of the Causes of the War, a quasi-think tank offshoot of the War Guilt Section of the German Foreign Ministry in the 1920s and 30s whose sole mission was to spin the history of World War I in Germany's favor. First, he blames his native Britain for just about everything: diplomatic blundering that led to the start of the war; entry into the war that made it a global conflict; and a contribution to the war that made it stretch on for four long, miserable years. Second, he claims that a German victory would have just led to a benign, EU-like arrangment on the continent. Again, I say: It is the heterodox approach and perspective of this book that makes it well worth reading, not its iconoclastic message.
In closing, if you are looking for one book to read on the First World War, this is not the one to get. If, however, you are familiar with the subject and are looking for a book that will challenge your assumptions and perhaps make you rethink your understanding the seminal conflict of the twentieth century, The Pity of the War may be well-worth your time.
Rating: 4
Summary: A provocative revisionist history
Comment: This is an extremely interesting and thought-provoking book, written by a young and industrious historian who seems to be striving for A.J.P. Taylor-hood. Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War is basically a Euro-skeptical history of Britain's part in the First World War. He argues that there was no reason for Britain to get involved in the war in 1914; that Britain's intervention turned what might have been a brief and victorious war for the Germans into a European catastrophe; that this catastrophe caused the "short twentieth century," from the outbreak of war to the fall of communism; that the short twentieth century was a bloody detour through war and totalitarianism, ending in the result that the Germans were aiming at in 1914, viz. German hegemony in a united Europe; and that by trying to stop Germany Britain only ruined itself and caused the death of millions, directly and indirectly. In a nutshell, since things turned out the same in the end, only worse, it was a pity that Britain intervened in the war.
Obviously, this is a book that could not have been written ten years ago, before the collapse of communism pressed an historical reset button. One of things that makes Ferguson's book so interesting is the way post-communist events seem to have influenced his view of the past. One sees the United States' victory in the Cold War arms race behind his argument that Germany should have spent more on arms before 1914. One also sees the herds of Iraqis surrendering to the Coalition forces in the Gulf War behind his discussion of the importance of surrendering and prisoner-taking. As a result, Ferguson may have written the first twenty-first century history of the twentieth century's most important conflict.
I didn't agree with many of the things Ferguson says in his book, but I did find it consistently engrossing and challenging. It was a refreshing book that made me re-examine just about everything I have ever learned about the First World War, and I recommend it highly.
Rating: 3
Summary: Revisionist history by a master historian
Comment: Niall Ferguson is arguably one of the best and brightest historians of his generation. As such, his _Pity of War_ is a new interpretation of one of the seminal events in the last 150 years. Rather than a formal "history" of the First World War, it is more of a collection of essays and papers on his take on the conflict. While his arguments are interesting, I am skeptical of many of his conclusions, and find some of his arguments bewlidering.
Ferguson claims, for example, that Britain should have left Belgium out to dry, which would have ended the war with a unified Europe and Britain's Empire in tact. While I would argree that WWI destroyed the British Empire, it is a little disingenuous to claim that Germany would have "unified" Europe. Other arguments claim that it was not propoganda, but the "thrill of the fight" that kept the war going on for so long, that Germany was not militaristic, and that the Versailles Treaty was not harsh enough.
Much of Ferguson's book flies in the face of the conventional wisdom on the First World War - and to be fair, some of his ideas do warrant further attention; however the bulk of the book seemed a far reach to the plausable.
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Title: Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power by Niall Ferguson ISBN: 0465023282 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000 by Niall Ferguson ISBN: 0465023266 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals by Niall Ferguson ISBN: 0465023231 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 21 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.50 |
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Title: Colossus: The Price of America's Empire by Niall Ferguson ISBN: 1594200130 Publisher: The Penguin Press Pub. Date: 22 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets, 1798-1848 by Niall Ferguson ISBN: 0140240845 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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