The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World

It's important to do Justice to the unprecedented scale of and legacy of this battle. Essentially the Germans couldn't get through the allied armies and had to stop their attack. This book describes the complicated groups of attacking and opposing forces and how they came to end up in their final stalemate positions. It's strength is to explain the movements of the group's vis a vis each other and the enemy basically on a day by day basis. To my eyes it maybe overstates the hesitancy of the BEF's engagement and the slightness of their contribution. The maps are very unclear and should have started with a more detailed one of the basic geography especially the rivers, higher ground, and railways. I read it back to back with David Stevenson's 1914 to 1918 and they compliment each other well. Both give too little emphasis (speaking as a layman) to Germanys all out effort to stir up trouble to start with and their vision of the empire they wanted as portrayed by Fischer in his War Aims book.

Very careful and detailed account of the opening weeks of WWI, including many maps of changing positions throughout the period. This book is for someone who wants to dig down into the day-to-day tactical decisions that were made on both sides, with analysis of the successes and mistakes. The amount of research that had to be undertaken to present such a comprehensive narrative leaves me astonished. Having toured the battlefields of France and Belgium a 100 years after the events - a daunting experience even today - this book has helped me understand how the stage was set for the following four years of horrifying trench warfare.

The book begins examining the reasons to go to war,above all for Germany and the Absburg Empire, then analyzing the war plans of all the powers involved in this world war, including even a lot of "what if"s.The author, then, follows the development of this huge conflict , on the Western Front, until the end of the battle of the Marne, analyzing, even on this case, a lot of very interesting "what if"s .I don't want that from these words you can think that this is just a cold detailed research book about a battle, because, instead this book is full of first hand accounts coming from a lot of war diaries written by soldiers belogning to all the possible ranks, from private to general.Even if this book is based mainly on german sources, this book is not onesided, indeed it includes even a complete list and description of the german crimes committed in Belgium, in thev first months of war.The author thinks that this battle is the most important of the century because if the Germans had won it, it would not have happened the birth of the Nazism (the treaty of Versailles would not have existed) and of the Comunism ( winning at the Marne, the Germans would have defeated France, and so consequently even Russia, being, on this case , a nonsense to help Lenin to reach Russia).The maps are excellent and for sure much better than many others found in other book about WWI.A great research book with a great soul.

The amount of research is staggering. I can understand why a casual reader might be put off by this book but if, like me, you are a serious student of the war, it is engrossing. I could not put it down until the last page.

An excellent view of the 1914 campaign in WW1.