Max Hastings is a well respected author of many books on warfare and has produced in "Catastrophe" a serious history book explaining the paths to war in 1914. He gathers each thread of this complex plot and shows how it combined to make war inevatable. He explores many of the myths that have grown up arround the war that has, in the public imagination confined it to the Western Front and the trenches. He shows that while the trenches were an important feature there was so much more to the fighting. He draws on wide ranging accounts of the war from those who were involved and proguces logical conclusions that often debunk the hitherto accepted arguments. At 627 pages with a good cross section of photographs this is not a light read, but for serious students of this conflict it is a "must read".
HB ISBN 978-0-00-739857-7
2013