A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire
A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire book cover

A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire

by
Price
$22.60
Format
Hardcover
Pages
472
Publisher
Basic Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0465028351
Dimensions
6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
Weight
0.035 ounces

Description

"Exceptionally accessible to the general reader, Wawro offers a picture of an Austro-Hungarian leadership that was reckless in the extreme...with a fatalistic sense of 'now or never.'" ― Wall Street Journal " A Mad Catastrophe finally brings some clarity to how the death of one Archduke, while admittedly tragic, could lead to the deaths of millions.... Wawro's excellently written book, in chilling detail, explains all the frustrating and infuriating blundering. The war was completely senseless, the insane war-lust of a failing state; this book gives Austria-Hungary its rightful, starring role as cause of the conflict." ― San Francisco Book Review "Wawro writes about the Austro-Hungarian Empire's role in the start and unfolding of the Great War with verve, inescapable black humour and a certain note of there-but-for-the-grace-of-God."― Macleans "Wawro is a historian of the US military, but his damning portrait of the neurotic empire...well reflects the surreal fiction of Hasek and Musil."― Literary Review, UK " A Mad Catastrophe is a welcome contribution to the small but growing number of scholarly studies of the eastern front that have appeared in English over the last few years."― BBC History Magazine "In a year glutted with first world war books, this study stands out for its devastating portrayal of the reckless diplomacy, internal political disarray and incompetent battlefield leadership that dragged Austro-Hungary towards the abyss in 1914. Wawro...offers a remarkably fresh and unsentimental analysis of an empire on its last legs."― Financial Times Best History Books of 2014 "2014 marks the centennial of the outbreak of World War I, and Geoffrey Wawro's A Mad Catastrophe is a welcome addition to the growing list of books covering the causes and development of the horrific war.... Accompanied by detailed maps, his descriptions are blow-by-blow accounts, all written in lively prose. His is a sad story of carnage and destruction that drives home, yet again, the futility and stupidity of this 'Great War.'"― Providence Journal "2014 marks the centennial of the outbreak of World War I, and Geoffrey Wawro's A Mad Catastrophe is a welcome addition to the growing list of books covering the causes and development of the horrific war.... Accompanied by detailed maps, his descriptions are blow-by-blow accounts, all written in lively prose. His is a sad story of carnage and destruction that drives home, yet again, the futility and stupidity of this 'Great War.'"― Providence Journal "An engaging case study in the disaster that can happen when interests and capabilities get greatly out of kilter.... Readable and entertaining."― Army Magazine "A riveting account of a neglected face of WWI."― Military History " A Mad Catastrophe is a highly readable and cogently argued book that, once again, shows the level of sheer idiocy that lay behind this pivotal period of history."― History of War, UK "A fascinating addition to the military and diplomatic scholarship surrounding Austria-Hungary's inept move toward war and its incompetent execution of the conflict.... Wawro's book is an excellent account of where plunging over a cliff will land you: in pieces."― MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History "Wawro's authoritative account is a damning analysis of an empire and a people unready for war."― Publishers Weekly "Wawro offers a crucial insight into the Eastern Front.... On this centennial of the Great War's beginning, Wawro has composed a thoroughly researched and well-written account, mercilessly debunking any nostalgia for the old monarch and the deeply dysfunctional empire over which he presided."― Kirkus Reviews "Wawro's contribution lies in his focus on how the overall decline of Austria-Hungary broke relations with the Balkan states and Russia and how its military blundering caused its ultimate destruction. A worthwhile read."― Library Journal "The most important study of the Eastern Front in decades, Wawro's brilliant and thoroughly researched narrative easily replaces existing books on the subject. Eschewing the Radetzky March nostalgia which so often suffuses books on the last years of the Dual Monarchy, Wawro summons forth a searing indictment of the lethal Austro-Hungarian blundering which helped unleash the First World War and brought all the horrors of the modern age to Eastern Europe."― Sean McMeekin, author of July 1914: Countdown to War "A distinctly unique and long overdue contribution to the historiography of early WWI. The aficionados of Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August and Istvan Szabo's film Colonel Redl will find this a marvelous, engrossing and distinctly well written read that gives necessary balance to the already well-covered narrative of WWI's Western Front.... Master historian Geoff Wawro does a tour de force job in colorfully bringing this to light."― Brigadier General Peter Zwack, US Army " A Mad Catastrophe systematically eviscerates Austria-Hungary's final, fatal efforts to play the role of a great power. Wawro presents a case study of culpable, comprehensive, synergistic incompetence at every level of policy-making, strategic planning, and operational effectiveness. A decaying empire went to war fecklessly, conducted war haphazardly, and pulled Europe down into its final vortex. Brilliantly acerbic and comprehensively researched, this is a book difficult to put down."― Dennis Showalter, author of Patton and Rommel: Men of War in the 20th Century " A Mad Catastrophe is an absorbing and shocking look at a now neglected aspect of the origins of the First World War. The author--a master military historian, whose works are standard accounts of late nineteenth century Austro-Prussian wars--shows just how reckless Viennese policy before and after the outbreak of hostilities was. Wawro's book should be on every reading list and in the hands of every policymaker."― Brendan Simms, author of Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy from 1453 to the Present "This is not just a story of the part played by the Hapsburg Empire in precipitating the First World War, and of the truly lamentable performance of its armies once the war began. It is a devastating indictment of a whole regime, whose slovenly incompetence resulted in a military catastrophe of which Geoff Wawro gives a truly horrifying account. Of all the histories of 1914 that are now pouring from the press, this will rank among the very best." ― Sir Michael Howard Geoffrey Wawro is professor of history and director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas and the author of six books, including A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire . Wawro lives in Dallas, Texas.

Features & Highlights

  • A masterful account of the Hapsburg Empire's bumbling entrance into World War I, and its rapid collapse on the Eastern Front
  • The Austro-Hungarian army that attacked Russia and Serbia in August 1914 had a glorious past but a pitiful present. Speaking a mystifying array of languages and lugging obsolete weapons, the Habsburg troops were hopelessly unprepared for the industrialized warfare that would shortly consume Europe. As prizewinning historian Geoffrey Wawro explains in
  • A Mad Catastrophe
  • , the disorganization of these doomed conscripts perfectly mirrored Austria-Hungary itself. For years, the Empire had been rotting from within, hollowed out by complacency and corruption at the highest levels. When Germany goaded Austria into starting the world war, the Empire's profound political and military weaknesses were exposed. By the end of 1914, the Austro-Hungarian army lay in ruins and the course of the war seemed all but decided. Reconstructing the climax of the Austrian campaign in gripping detail,
  • A Mad Catastrophe
  • is a riveting account of how Austria-Hungary plunged the West into a tragic and unnecessary war.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(98)
★★★★
25%
(82)
★★★
15%
(49)
★★
7%
(23)
★
23%
(75)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Great preparation and documentation

Writing is a bit sophomoric at times but then i just finished Castles of Steel, Dreadnought and The Sleepwalkers so I may be prejudiced.

great book
5 people found this helpful
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a good read on the early war on the Eastern Front

overall, I liked the book, seemed to be well written and the story flowed well. I was unable to validate footnotes, even with my limited, but fair library of material on the Great War.
I knew about the high casualty rates on the Eastern Front but I didn't realize the number of deserters or 'missing' from the Austro-Hungarian Armies was due so much to indifference and lack of leadership at the Company and Regimental levels. This in turn was due to the high casualty rates of Officer's and experienced NCO's.
The book drives home the point that the Hapsburgs, at its maximum would enlist and/or conscript roughly 4 million men, while the Russians could enlist and/or conscript some 11 million and this doesn't take into consideration the Serbian front, where the Austrian-Hungarian Armies tried three times and failed. Had it not been for the Russian Revolution and the Germans taking over control of all Austrian-Hungarian Armies, the Russians would have taken Berlin, relieved pressure on the Western Front and the war would have ended sooner.
4 people found this helpful
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EVERY PAGE YOU WANT TO YELL---'''PLEASE DONT DO'''''!!!!!!!

If you wish to read about a nation running head long into the cooking pot this is that book about a nation killing itself by its own hand.....multi culture gone crazy!!!!!German speaking officers yelling orders to Slavs who don't understand German!!!This is the way you not only loose battles but entire wars and empires.....it explains why WW-1 left so many un answered questions and it took another war to sort of iron out,100 years down the road and were still living with the aftermath world wide!!!
3 people found this helpful
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A Mad Catastrophe

I have all of Wawro's books and like his others I thoroughly enjoyed this latest offering. He writes about a little known aspect of the early days of WW1 and the intrigue, sloth and mendacity of one of the co-belligerents is clearly revealed. I personally like Wawro's style and even though the subject matter is very complicated he makes much of the confusion of the times much more clear to the WW1 scholar.
2 people found this helpful
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Fills a long empty gap on the start of WW I

I remember how impressed I was by Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August" when it came out on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of WW I--except that it said nothing about Austria-Hungary's military operations. Now we have a volume that fills that gap. Prof. Wawro passionately narrates the debacle of the Monarchy's two invasions of Serbia and operations against Czarist Russia, amply documented from the archives of the Austro-Hungarian military. The Monarchy emerges in this account as a political and military system rotten to the core, governed by arrogant and incompetent elites, yet still possessed of enough power to condemn hordes of young soldiers to their deaths. Prof. Wawro is definitely lacking in sentimental regard for the Monarchy: both of his grandparents emigrated from the poverty and backwardness of the old province of Galicia just months before the outbreak of war, very likely saving their lives as a result. But the documentary record he cites speaks for itself. A dreadful but unavoidable tale.
2 people found this helpful
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The other front

I find a number of World War I books coming out now that its the Centennial of the wars start.What I find refreshing are the accounts that are now coming forward that show what was happening on the eastern front. That I feel has been for gotten by many. I believe that Wawro has done a service in bring to light the Austria did and should have received the blame rather then Germany for the cause. Which will be debated for the next 100 years.
2 people found this helpful
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YOU WILL READ ONLY ONE BOOK ON THE EASTERN FRONT - THIS SHOULD BE IT

Let's face facts, unless you are a professional student of The Great War you are likely to read only one or two books on that war's Eastern Front in your lifetime. That being the case, this book should be your pick. It is well researched, brilliantly written, and presents a number of thoughtful interpretations not found elsewhere. I am slowly making my way through the spate of World War I books that have hit the market in in the last year... so far, A Mad Catastrophe and The Sleepwalkers are the best of the current works on the war. This is a book for both scholars of the war and those with just a dabbling interest.
2 people found this helpful
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boring

another University Professor writing dribble, very disappointed since it is such an interesting subject.
1 people found this helpful
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A real inside story

Found this telling of an often neglected view of WWI extremely interesting and easy to understand. Glad to get away from the Western front and learn more of the nuts and bolts of one of the major participants of the war. Concentration is mostly on the run up to the war and the first year but that is what determined the course of the rest of the conflict. A great read.
1 people found this helpful
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Be prepared for an irritating but still excellent read

This is an exceedingly well-written book, nicely printed with useful maps and photographs. It is also an irritating read because of Wawro's intense tone on several issues. He seems to see the Hungarians as capriciously and systematically weakening the Hapsburg state, after the realignment of the Austrian state into what is usually called Austro-Hungary. The accumulated impact on the empire's ability to make war was, according to Wawro, baleful. He does chronicle the war very well, and does seem to acknowledge that ethnically Hungarian units performed well and with courage.

Wawro has a quite strong bias against Conrad. the CinC, so to speak, seeing the man as haughty and his operations as disastrous. Conrad does emerge, in Wawro's picture, as a wonderful character, smart, badly flawed aristocrat. In general, Wawro's biographical sketches are very well done and add to the interest of his narrative.

Much of the book describes a woeful war, conducted by an overconfident and woefully inept empire. The woeful tone is characterized by woeful equipment, woeful training, woeful if courageous commanders. The book looks mostly at the background and context, and the first year of the war. Austrian losses were huge. The war in Serbia, often overlooked in histories, was savage, characterized by the kind of atrocities generally associated with the later world war. The Austrians lost badly in Serbia in 1914 and badly in the Carpathians in 1915. In 1915, Wawro notes, the draft took men from 18 to 50, drafted Gypsies for the first time ever, and had a difficult time replacing their severe losses. Officer incompetence a factor. Home front conditions deteriorated, and the whole rickety structure Wawro describes was shaken to the point of collapse.

A mystery to the attentive reader is, if the whole structure was near collapse early on, how did it survive until 1918? German support does not seem enough to have kept the empire's ravaged armies in the field. Still, this is an excellent read and I recommend the book, even with the fact I sometimes found it nearly infuriating.
1 people found this helpful

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