The Pity of War: Explaining World War I (Revised) -- Niall Ferguson, Paperback
The Pity of War: Explaining World War I (Revised) -- Niall Ferguson, Paperback
Regular price
$40.99
Sale price
$40.99
Regular price
$27.99
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Available in stock
From a bestselling historian, a daringly revisionist history of World War I
The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German aims, thereby transforming a Continental conflict into a world war, which it then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather was the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces.
That the war was wicked, horrific, and inhuman is memorialized in part by the poetry of men like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, but also by cold statistics. Indeed, more British soldiers were killed in the first day of the Battle of the Somme than Americans in the Vietnam War. And yet, as Ferguson writes, while the war itself was a disastrous folly, the great majority of men who fought it did so with little reluctance and with some enthusiasm. For anyone wanting to understand why wars are fought, why men are willing to fight them and why the world is as it is today, there is no sharper or more stimulating guide than Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War.
Author: Niall Ferguson
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 03/03/2000
Pages: 608
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.30w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780465057122
Review Citation(s):
New York Times 05/28/2000 pg. 24
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2001 pg. 21
The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German aims, thereby transforming a Continental conflict into a world war, which it then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather was the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces.
That the war was wicked, horrific, and inhuman is memorialized in part by the poetry of men like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, but also by cold statistics. Indeed, more British soldiers were killed in the first day of the Battle of the Somme than Americans in the Vietnam War. And yet, as Ferguson writes, while the war itself was a disastrous folly, the great majority of men who fought it did so with little reluctance and with some enthusiasm. For anyone wanting to understand why wars are fought, why men are willing to fight them and why the world is as it is today, there is no sharper or more stimulating guide than Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War.
Author: Niall Ferguson
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 03/03/2000
Pages: 608
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.30w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780465057122
Review Citation(s):
New York Times 05/28/2000 pg. 24
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2001 pg. 21
About the Author
Niall Ferguson is one of the world's most renowned historians and author of numerous books, including The Square and the Tower, The Ascent of Money, and Civilization. He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing.
Payment & Security
Payment methods
Your payment information is processed securely. We do not store credit card details nor have access to your credit card information.
