Originally published in 1950. Hans Gatzke analyzes Germany's ambitions to expand westward during World War I. Germany's wartime plans for expansion to the west had important repercussions at home and abroad. Gatzke proceeds chronologically, starting with the German political parties' outlining of their war aims. Gatzke claims that a combination of interests, including those of industrialists, pan-Germans, the parties of the Right, and the Supreme Command was responsible for the stubborn propagation of Germany's large war aims, which condemned the German people to remain at war until the bitter end. Each of these forces had its own particular reasons for wanting to hold out for far-reaching territorial gains, yet one aim that most of them had in common was ensuring, through a successful peace settlement, the continuation of the existing order, to their own advantage and to the political and economic detriment of the majority of the German people.

This probing examination of the period just before and after Hitler came to power corrects many misconceptions about German rearmament. Drawing on previously unexploited sources, Edward Bennett unravels German military plans and shows their implications, undermining the notion that Hitler's accession represented a radical break with Germany's past. He also lays bare the fears and rivalries that hindered the West's response, particularly at the 1932-1933 World Disarmament Conference. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Belgium was once described as the 'dagger held at the throat of England', a collection of provinces that had long been a critical factor in British foreign policy, and the traditional concern was that Belgium, and especially the Flanders coast, would fall into the hands of the strongest continental power. In 1914, Germany's occupation of Belgium brought about the spectre of enemy ships only seventy miles from the British coast, and the coast of Flanders became, effectively, the naval flank of the Western Front.?Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was one of the few within the German navy who recognised the strategic potential of the three ports of Ostend, Zeebrugge and Brugges; that they were closer to England than the Helgoland Bight for access by small craft, and brought Germany to within a few hours sailing of the Thames estuary. This new book tells the story of the creation, purpose, operations and career of the MarineKorps Flandern. The Flanders harbours should have allowed the German navy to strike dangerous blows at vital British traffic in the Channel and southern North Sea but the MarineKorps was unable to fulfill the great expectations of von Tirpitz. The author not only explains how the German conducted operations, but also explains how the opportunites presented by the Flemish occupation were wasted away. A significant and insightful book on an important theatre of the War

America and World War I, the first volume in the new Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies series, provides a concise, annotated guide to the vast amount of resources available on the Great War. With over 2,000 entries selected from a wide variety of publications, manuscript collections, databases, and online resources, this volume will be an invaluable research tool for students, scholars, and military history buffs alike. The wide range of topics covered include war films and literature, to civil-military relations, to women and war. Routledge Research Guides to American Military Studies will include concise, easy-to-use bibliographic volumes on different American military campaigns throughout history, as well as tackling timely subjects such as women in the military and terrorism.

This important contribution to the successful textbook series New Approaches to European History explores the comprehensive impact of the First World War on Imperial Germany. It examines military aspects of the conflict, as well as the diplomacy, government, politics, and industrial mobilization of wartime Germany. Unlike other existing surveys, however, Roger Chickering also offers a rich portrait of life on the home front: the pervasive effects of 'total war' on wealthy and poor, men and women, young and old, farmers and city-dwellers, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. This excellent, well-illustrated study of the military, political and socio-economic effects of the First World War is essential reading for all students of German and European history, as well as for those interested in the history of war and society. Now appearing in a second edition, first published in 2004, this accessible book reflects important scholarship in the field and boasts an expanded and revised bibliography.

Exploiting new findings from former East Bloc archives and from long-ignored Western sources, this book presents a wholly new picture of the coming of World War II, Allied wartime diplomacy, and the origins of the Cold War. The author reveals that the story - widely believed by historians and Western wartime leaders alike - that Stalin's purposes in European diplomacy from 1938 on were mainly defensive is a fantasy. Indeed, this is one of the longest enduring products of Stalin's propaganda, of long-term political control of archival materials, and of the gullibility of Western observers. The author argues that Stalin had concocted a plan for bringing about a general European war well before Hitler launched his expansionist program for the Third Reich. Stalin expected that Hitler's war, when it came, would lead to the internal collapse of the warring nations, and that military revolts and proletarian revolutions like those of World War I would break out in the capitalist countries. This scenario foresaw the embattled proletarians calling for the assistance of the Red Army, which would sweep across Europe. The book further shows that the wartime disputes between Stalin and his Western allies originated over the postwar redisposition of the territories Stalin had gained from his pact with Hitler. The situation was complicated by the incautious, unrestricted commitment of support to the Soviet Union first by Churchill and then by Roosevelt, and wartime circumstances provided cover to obscure these diplomatic failures. The early origins of the Cold War described in this book differ dramatically from the usual accounts that see a sudden and surprising upwelling of Cold War antagonisms late in the War or early in the postwar period.

Presents a day-by-day chronology of the events of World War I and a biographical dictionary of people involved in the conflict.

This is a study in the pathology of cultural criticism. By analyzing the thought and influence of three leading critics of modern Germany, this study will demonstrate the dangers and dilemmas of a particular type of cultural despair. Lagarde, Langbehn, and Moeller van den Bruck-their active lives spanning the years from the middle of the past century to the threshold of Hitler's Third Reich-attacked, often incisively and justly, the deficiencies of German culture and the German spirit. But they were more than the critics of Germany's cultural crisis; they were its symptoms and victims as well. Unable to endure the ills which they diagnosed and which they had experienced in their own lives, they sought to become prophets who would point the way to a national rebirth. Hence, they propounded all manner of reforms, ruthless and idealistic, nationalistic and utopian. It was this leap from despair to utopia across all existing reality that gave their thought its fantastic quality.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century tremendous economic, technological, and scientific developments took place in Western Europe as states shifted from predominantly agricultural to pre dominantly industrial economies. As a result of these changes, the nature of warfare altered. The First World War was not simply a struggle between the armed forces of belligerent nations. It was a total war which Ultimately involved all the forces in the nations on a scale and with an intensity which mankind had never before experienced. Total warfare demanded the entire strength of the nation. In Germany the transition to total warfare began earliest and went furthest. Even there it was born not in the early days of the fighting, but only after the conflict extended beyond the period originally antici pated. By mid-I916, the struggle had turned essentially into a battle of material, and it became apparent that its economic and technical aspects were more important than the purely military. An ever greater production of war-essential goods became the paramount need. Germany's armed forces had grown to an unprecedented size, but each man in the military service represented at the same time an increase in the need for supplies and a decrease in the productive labor force. The crux of the problem was the manpower shortage.