From the Western Front to the Balkans, from Italy to the war in the East, the First World War was the most apocalyptic conflict the world had ever known. Hailed by the New York Times Book Review as both "stimulating, scholarly, and shrewd" and "rich in original ideas," Dynamic of Destruction reveals how and why the civilized nations of Europe descended into an unprecedented orgy of destruction. Using a wide range of examples and striking eye-witness accounts from England, France, Germany, and elsewhere, award-winning historian Alan Kramer brings home the reality of the Great War, painting a picture of an entire continent plunging into a chilling new world of mass mobilization, total warfare, and the celebration of nationalist or ethnic violence--often directed expressly at the enemy's civilian population. Kramer examines the psychological impact of trench warfare, addresses the question of German atrocities (were the Germans particularly barbaric, or was savage behavior common on all sides), and offers a disturbing summation of the war's impact on European culture.
