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816 Pages
51 x 132 x 211
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"Thundering, magnificent . . . [A World Undone] is a book of true greatness that prompts moments of sheer joy and pleasure. . . . It will earn generations of admirers."--The Washington Times
On a summer day in 1914, a nineteen-year-old Serbian nationalist gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. While the world slumbered, monumental forces were shaken. In less than a month, a combination of ambition, deceit, fear, jealousy, missed opportunities, and miscalculation sent Austro-Hungarian troops marching into Serbia, German troops streaming toward Paris, and a vast Russian army into war, with England as its ally. As crowds cheered their armies on, no one could guess what lay ahead in the First World War: four long years of slaughter, physical and moral exhaustion, and the near collapse of a civilization that until 1914 had dominated the globe.
Praise for A World Undone
"Meyer's sketches of the British Cabinet, the Russian Empire, the aging Austro-Hungarian Empire . . . are lifelike and plausible. His account of the tragic folly of Gallipoli is masterful. . . . [A World Undone] has an instructive value that can scarcely be measured"--Los Angeles Times
"An original and very readable account of one of the most significant and often misunderstood events of the last century."--Steve Gillon, resident historian, The History Channel
Industry Reviews
"This is one of those books where you read every page.... Meyer organizes his book chronologically, and accompanies each chapter with a short background essay.... [A World Undone] has the very best qualities for this kind of comprehensive approach: a gift for compression and an eye for the telling detail." --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"A comprehensive history aimed at the general reader....You finish this book feeling you've learned everything anyone reasonably needs to know about The Great War." --Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Meyer breathes life into the human story within the Great War. He provides in-depth profiles of many of the political and military leaders of that era, and explains why they were so important....This is a literary vision of WWI that few of us have ever encountered. Simply put, this is historical reporting at its best." --Smoky Mountain Sentinel
"Thundering, magnificent...this is a book of true greatness that prompts moments of sheer joy and pleasure. Researched to last possible dot...It will earn generations of admirers." --Washington Times
"Especially suited for the interested American reader.... Meyer's sketches of the British Cabinet, the Russian Empire, the aging Austro-Hungarian Empire, the leaders of Prussia with their newly minted swagger, are lifelike and plausible. His account of the tragic folly of Gallipoli is masterful.... It should go without saying that in 2006 ... [A World Undone] has an instructive value that can scarely be measured."--Los Angeles Times
"Accomplished with brio... [Meyer] blends 'foreground, background, and sidelights' to highlight the complex interactions of apparently unconnected events behind the four-year catastrophic war that destroyed a world and defined a century."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
| List of Maps | p. xiii |
| List of Illustrations | p. xv |
| Chronology | p. xvii |
| Major Characters | p. xxvii |
| Introduction | p. xxxiii |
| July 1914: Into the Abyss | p. 1 |
| June 28: The Black Hand Descends | p. 3 |
| Background: The Serbs | |
| Never Again | p. 18 |
| Background: The Hapsburgs | |
| Setting Fire to Europe | p. 32 |
| Background: The Hohenzollerns | |
| July 25 to 28: Secrets and Lies | p. 51 |
| Background: The Romanovs | |
| July 29 to 31: Fear Is a Bad Counselor | p. 72 |
| Background: The Ottoman Turks | |
| Saturday, August 1: Leaping into the Dark | p. 93 |
| August-December 1914: Racing to Deadlock | p. 103 |
| The Iron Dice Roll | p. 105 |
| Background: Paris in 1914 | |
| First Blood | p. 124 |
| Background: London in 1914 | |
| A Perfect Balance | p. 155 |
| Background: The Junkers | |
| To the Marne | p. 184 |
| Background: The French Commanders | |
| Back from the Marne | p. 201 |
| Background: The British Commanders | |
| Flanders Fields | p. 220 |
| 1915: A Zero-Sum Game | p. 239 |
| The Search for Elsewhere | p. 241 |
| Background: The Machinery of Death | |
| The Dardanelles | p. 265 |
| Background: The Sea War | |
| Ypres Again | p. 291 |
| Background: Troglodytes | |
| Gallipoli | p. 305 |
| Background: An Infinite Appetite for Shells | |
| The Ground Shifts | p. 319 |
| Background: Genocide | |
| Gallipoli Again, and Poland, and... | p. 338 |
| 1916: Bleeding to Death | p. 359 |
| Verdun: Preparation | p. 361 |
| Background: Old Wounds Unhealed | |
| Verdun: Execution | p. 380 |
| Background: The Living Dead | |
| Verdun Metastasizes | p. 398 |
| Background: Airships and Landships | |
| Maelstrom | p. 414 |
| Background: The Jews of Germany | |
| The Somme | p. 435 |
| Background: Farewells, and an Arrival at the Top | |
| Exhaustion | p. 435 |
| 1917: Things Fall Apart | p. 471 |
| Turnips and Submarines | p. 473 |
| Background: Consuming the Future | |
| A New Defense, and a New Offensive | p. 491 |
| Background: Hearts and Minds | |
| Revolution and Intervention | p. 506 |
| Background: The Cossacks | |
| The Nivelle Offensive | p. 527 |
| Background: The War and Poetry | |
| Wars Without Guns | p. 549 |
| Background: Enter the Tiger | |
| Passchendaele | p. 571 |
| 1918: Last Throw of the Dice | p. 589 |
| Going for Broke | p. 591 |
| Background: Kaiser Wilhelm II | |
| Entangling Misalliances | p. 610 |
| Background: Lawrence of Arabia | |
| Michael | p. 626 |
| Background: Ludendorff | |
| An Impossibly Complex Game | p. 649 |
| Background: The Women | |
| The Black Day of the German Army | p. 671 |
| Background: The Gardeners of Salonika | |
| The Sign of the Defeated | p. 689 |
| Postwar: The Fate of Men and Nations | p. 705 |
| Notes | p. 717 |
| Bibliography | p. 753 |
| Index | p. 764 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780553382402
ISBN-10: 0553382403
Published: 29th May 2007
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 816
Audience: General Adult
Publisher: DELACORTE
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (cm): 51 x 132 x 211
Weight (kg): 0.68
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