As the German army moved swiftly into its start positions at the beginning of the First World War, efficiently and seamlessly forming up for the hammer blow that was to fall on France it must have been with some pride that General Ludendorff would look upon the first grand strategical plan that he had a hand in. A cool, calculating planner dedicated to ensuring that chance played as little a part in war as possible General Erich Ludendorff was the product of the prestigious German Kriegsakademie. His memoirs on the First World War are an excellently detailed account of the planning and execution of the ambitious German High command and their thirst for Victory Although known primarily as staff officer his initial service, in the German army, during the war, was at the siege of Liège for which he was awarded the coveted Pour La Mérite by the Kaiser himself. He was rushed to the embattled Eastern Front as Chief of Staff to General von Hindenburg, and the two made an impressive team winning that battles of Tanneburg and the Masurian Lakes. Once again Ludendorff, this time was his chief Hindenburg, was drafted in as a replacement to ensure the fortunes of the German forces, this time on the Western front in 1916. He operated as the prime mover in the German empire from this point until the end of the war; masterminding the 1918 offensives as the last throw of the dice before capitulation. This first volume covers his early career until 1917 and is enriched with maps of the campaigns of the First World War. Author — General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff, 1865-1937. Translator — Anon. Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in New York and London, Harper & Brothers, 1919. Original Page Count – 477 pages

"The authors deliver a chilling, well–researched biography that opens a whole new window on the world wars and the German psyche at the time."—Kirkus Reviews "A brilliant tactician and an abysmally poor politician and strategist, Ludendorff summed up the strengths and weaknesses of the German General Staff. His is a fascinating story of talent, discipline, obsession, and denial."—Professor Isabel Virginia Hull, PhD, Cornell University One of the most important military individuals of the last century, yet one of the least known, Ludendorff not only dictated all aspects of World War I, he refused all opportunities to make peace; he antagonized the Americans until they declared war; he sent Lenin into Russia to forge a revolution in order to shut down the Russian front; and in 1918 he pushed for total military victory, in a slaughter known as "The Ludendorff Offensive." Ludendorff created the legend that Germany had lost the war only because Jews had conspired on the home front. He forged an alliance with Hitler, endorsed the Nazis, and wrote maniacally about how Germans needed a new world war, to redeem the Fatherland. He aimed to build a gigantic state to dwarf even the British Empire. Simply stated, he wanted the world.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Drawing on exhaustive research, this intimate account details how World War I reduced Europe’s mightiest empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the foundations of our modern world “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

The first volume of German infantry General Erich Ludendorff's memoir of World War I takes us from the 1914 outbreak of war, through trench warfare and several battles, to the end of 1916. The author speaks from his experiences commanding several divisions of Germany's infantry during the notorious trench warfare of World War I. Despite adverse conditions on fronts which barely moved for months at a time, Ludendorff was able to achieve important breakthroughs and victories which encouraged the German army and impressed his fellow generals. With ample experience on both the Western and Eastern fronts of the war, Ludendorff oversaw offensives against Belgium, Russia and Romania, observing tactics and warfare conditions change over time. Appended to this volume are fourteen maps, depicting the battlefields and lines of both Allied and German troops. Ludendorff's political ambitions - which at certain junctures clashed with his military career - meant his interest lay not merely in the battlefield: several assessments of the mood in Germany are included, how the population saw the conflict and the successive waves of recruitment and its effects upon life. Overall this book offers an intense narrative of the Great War from the perspective of strategizing commanders.

In this fascinating biography of the infamous ideologue Erich Ludendorff, Jay Lockenour complicates the classic depiction of this German World War I hero. Erich Ludendorff created for himself a persona that secured his place as one of the most prominent (and despicable) Germans of the twentieth century. With boundless energy and an obsession with detail, Ludendorff ascended to power and solidified a stable, public position among Germany's most influential. Between 1914 and his death in 1937, he was a war hero, a dictator, a right-wing activist, a failed putschist, a presidential candidate, a publisher, and a would-be prophet. He guided Germany's effort in the Great War between 1916 and 1918 and, importantly, set the tone for a politics of victimhood and revenge in the postwar era. Dragonslayer explores Ludendorff's life after 1918, arguing that the strange or unhinged personal traits most historians attribute to mental collapse were, in fact, integral to Ludendorff's political strategy. Lockenour asserts that Ludendorff patterned himself, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously, on the dragonslayer of Germanic mythology, Siegfried—hero of the epic poem The Niebelungenlied and much admired by German nationalists. The symbolic power of this myth allowed Ludendorff to embody many Germans' fantasies of revenge after their defeat in 1918, keeping him relevant to political discourse despite his failure to hold high office or cultivate a mass following after World War I. Lockenour reveals the influence that Ludendorff's postwar career had on Germany's political culture and radical right during this tumultuous era. Dragonslayer is a tale as fabulist as fiction.

The battle of Tannenberg (August 27-30, 1914) opened World War I with a decisive German victory over Russia-indeed the Kaiser's only clear-cut victory in a non-attritional battle during four years of war. In this first paperback edition of the classic work, historian Dennis Showalter analyzes this battle's causes, effects, and implications for subsequent German military policy. The author carefully guides the reader through what actually happened on the battlefield, from its grand strategy down to the level of improvised squad actions. Examining the battle in the context of contemporary diplom.