The German, French, English and Russian General Staffs had had their plans for war completed as early as ten years before the hostilities of August 1914 began. None of the plans allowed for the contingencies of the others or recognized their intrinsic errors. Yet for perhaps five years before the war began, each General Staff knew what the others would do; all was planned. In the summer of 1914, Europe was a heap of swords piled as delicately as jackstraws, and not one could be drawn out without upsetting the others. Still, statesmen, field marshalls, admirals, kings, and patriots believed what they wanted to believe - or what they feared not to believe - and waited in profound ignorance for victory to reveal istelf within a matter of weeks. Instead, August was the prelude to four bitter years of deadlocked war that cost a generation of European lives. The bloody catalog of the battles of August 1914 includes the almost mythic names of Liège, Tannenberg, Mons, the Battle of Frontiers, and Charleroi. It also includes men like Joffre indomitably rebuilding his shattered French armies; von Kluck stubbornly committing his fatal mistake; Admiral Souchon choosing his deaperate and fateful course for Constantinople; the human reasons for the disasters of war. -- Adapted from the publisher.

U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Professional reading list, 2017. USMC Commandant's Professional Reading List 2021 -- MSGT, 1STSGT, MGYSGT, SGTMAJ., CWO5, COL, GEN. Includes index. Reprint. Originally published: New York : Macmillan, 1962.