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HASTINGS,MAX**: : CATASTROPHE - EUROPE GOES TO WAR 1914

LONDON.WILLIAM COLLINS/HarperCollinsPublishers,2013.

ISBN 9780007398577.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 1.] FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean, glossy laminated,colour photographic illustrated dw/dj,with white lettering; with negligible shelf-wear or creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation. Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered, publisher's original plain grey cloth bds with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate Edwardian contemporary scenic photographic illustrated eps.Front eps a colour tinted Edwardian boating,riverside scene,rear eps a 1914 Ypres battle scene.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj, 1st edn,x-xxxviipp+2-628pp [paginated] includes illustrations list/table,b/w maps list/table,author's introduction,1914 Chronology,Organisation of the Armies in 1914,a prologue (Sarajevo),18 chapters - majority with sub-sections,32pp contemporary b/w photographs in 4 blocks of 8pp apiece,between pp90/1,pp218/19, pp378/9 and pp506/7 respectively, acknowledgements,notes and references,a bibliography and an index,plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,a dedication,contents list/table and 6pp blanks at the rear. In 1914,Europe plunged into the twentieth century's first terrible act of self- immolation - what was then called 'The Great War'.On the eve of its centenary.Max Hastings seeks to explain both how the conflict came about and what befell millions of men and women during the first months of strife.He finds the evidence overwhelming that Austria and Germany must accept principal blame for the outbreak. While what followed was a vast tragedy,he argues passionately against the 'poets' view',that the war was not worth winning. It was vital to the freedom of Europe,he says,that the Kaiser's Germany should be defeated. His narrative of the early battles will astonish those whose images of the war are simply of mud,wire,trenches and steel helmets.Hastings describes how the French army marched into action amid virgin rural landscapes,in uniforms of red and blue,led by mounted officers,with flags flying and bands playing.The bloodiest day of the entire Western war fell on 22 August 1914, when the French lost 27,000 dead.Four days later,at Le Cateau,the British fought an extraordinary action against the oncoming Germans,one of the last of its kind in history.In October,at terrible cost they held the allied line against massive German assaults in the first battle of Ypres.The author also describes the brutal struggles in Serbia,East Prussia and Galicia,where by Christmas the Germans, Austrians,Russians and Serbs had inflicted on each other three million casualties. The book offers some answers to the huge and fascinating question 'what happened to Europe in 1914?',through Max Hastings's accustomed blend of top-down and bottom-up accounts from a multitude of statesmen and generals,peasants,housewives and private soldiers of seven nations.His narrative pricks myths and offers some striking and controversial judgements.For a host of readers gripped by the author's last international best-seller 'All Hell Let Loose',this will seem a worthy succesor. Since April 2013,again in March 2015,and in this year too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering it's prices,weight allowances,dimensions and lowered it's qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact seller,because of the weight/value of this item for correct, insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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