To Arms

by Hew Strachan

  This should not be surprising, for many of the ideas flowed in the opposite direction from that which normally preoccupies historians. Anxious to illustrate the influence, or lack of it, of intellectuals, they labour over inadequate evidence in order to show transfers from high culture to popular thought. But in 1914 the experiences of August prompted the intellectuals to assimilate the pre-war nostrums of the populists. Many of the ideas embraced and developed by Troeltsch, Scheler, Sombart, and others in Germany were already common currency in the publications directed at, and produced on behalf of, the veterans’ organizations before the war.114 The responses of the intellectuals were frequently uninhibited and altruistic. But their openness to ideas from below was also a recognition of the opportunity which the war conferred for internal reintegration. Britain became the vehicle for Germany’s worries about its own culture; internal threats were externalized, and so could be attacked; the process of unification from below could be completed by defence against the danger from without. The maintenance of the Burgfrieden, or of the union sacrée, itself became a condition for victory. In this sense war aims were domestic: Troeltsch told his readers ‘to become more German than we were’.115

  The assimilation of the ‘ideas of 1914’ had two consequences. First, it removed any effective limits on the objectives of the war very soon after its onset. The ideas applied a vocabulary of absolutes which justified all that followed. Indeed, they could rationalize even defeat, both because it was only material and because its consequences need only be temporary. Secondly, it meant that final victory could not be achieved until one side had reversed the process, most probably by absorbing the ideas of the other. The advocates of ‘state socialism’ in Germany, like Lensch and Plenge, saw constitutional reform and the abolition of the Prussian three-class franchise as the most important step required of Germany in its role as modernizer. But that was also an objective of the Entente, not because liberals wished to install state socialism in Germany but because they saw democratization as a check to militarism. Thus, for a general like August von Mackensen the enemy was parliamentary government, whether without or within.116

  The effect of enshrining the war as a conflict between liberalism and militarism, between individualism and community, between anarchy and order, between capitalism and state socialism, was to make its immediate focus the Anglo-German antagonism. But the values which Britain claimed to defend in 1914 were as deeply, or more deeply, etched in the United States of America. Furthermore, as the exigencies of the war forced Britain to modify its liberalism in the pursuit of greater military effectiveness—to conscript, to curb free trade, to control profits—so its ideological differences seemed much less striking to Germans than did those of the United States. The Entente’s ease of access to American markets, and America’s condoning of the blockade which denied Germany comparable status, confirmed that the sin of perfidy and the pursuit of mammon were even more firmly entrenched across the Atlantic than across the Channel. The consequence of the ‘ideas of 1914 ‘was the extension of the war, not only ideologically but ultimately geographically.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  The Bibliography includes works relevant to the war as a whole and to this volume specifically. It does not incorporate material relevant to aspects of the war to be covered in subsequent volumes.

  The most recent guide to the English-language published sources is A. G. S. Enser, A subject bibliography of the First World War books in English 1914–1978 (London, 1979). Older, but particularly helpful for works published during the war and its immediate aftermath, are the Subject index of the books relating to the European war, 1914–1918, acquired by the British Museum, 1914–1920 (London, 1922) and Sir George Prothero, A select analytical list of books concerning the Great War (London, 1923). Both of these embrace foreign langagues, but, like Enser, they eschew critical comment. Cyril Falls, War books: a critical guide (London, 1930) fills the gap, at least for military history, and its 1989 edition makes some attempt to come up to date. However, Jürgen Rohwer (ed.), Neue Forschungen zum Ersten Weltkrieg (Koblenz, 1985), is far more wide-ranging, and is particularly good for Austria-Hungary and for many of the minor belligerents. Of the major ones, Germany can be followed through two excellent critical guides, both strong on the First World War: Dennis Showalter, German military history 1648–1982: a critical bibliography (New York, 1984), and Keith W. Bird, German naval history: a guide to the literature (New York, 1985). Listings of older German works are to be found in the Bibliographen der Weltkreigsbucherei, published by the Bibliothek für Zeitgeschichte, Stuttgart. Now dated, and focused tightly on military events, but still useful for France is the publication of the Ministère des Armies, État-Major de l’Armée, Service Historique, Guide bibliographique sommaire d’histoire militaire et coloniale française (Paris, 1969). French war literature received a thorough going over from Jean-Norton Cru, Témoins: essai d’analyse et de critique des souvenirs de combattants édités en France (Paris, 1929). Possibly the most exhaustive national bibliography is that for Belgium: Patrick Lefèvre and Jean Lorette, La Belgique et la première guerre mondiale: bibliographie (Brussels, 1987): it interprets its brief in the widest possible terms.

  The most recent chronology of the war, and the best, is Randal Gray, with Christopher Argyle, Chronicle of the First World War, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1990–1). The older ones have all been recently reprinted, and are: Lord Edward Gleichen, Chronology of the Great War, 3 vols. (London, 1918–20; reprinted in one volume with a new introduction by Gwyn Bayliss, London, 1988); Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence, History of the Great War based on official documents: principal events 1914–1918 (London, 1922; reprinted London, 1987); and The Times diary and index of the war (London, n.d.). David F. Burg and L. Edward Purcell, Almanac of World War I (Lexington, 1998) tries to roll a war diary in with a select bibliography and a number of potted biographies.

  Atlases are much more problematic, and not just because of changing place-names or fashions in spelling. The contemporary fashion is to use historical atlases to tell a story in ideographic form: the atlas most widely available, Martin Gilbert, First World War Atlas (London, 1970; reprinted many times), is an example of this. It is almost totally devoid of physical information, and therefore useless for understanding operations. Anthony Livesey, The Viking atlas of World War I (London, 1994), is much better on this score, but is still no substitute for those published at the time or soon after. The Times war atlas and gazetteer (London, n.d.) is invaluable, although less good for theatres outside Europe. E. O. Volkmann, Strategischer Atlas zum Weltkrieg (Leipzig, 1937), illustrates individual campaigns.

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