The Eastern Front A history of the Great War, 1914-1918

Most English-language histories of WWI focus on the western front. In The Eastern Front, British miliary historian Lloyd argues that the war which reshaped much of Central and Eastern Europe was just as much a laboratory of modern warfare as the trench stalemate in the west. Lloyd focuses on strategy at the national and regional scale, covering the sweep of four years of war which swept from the Tyrolian Alps to the steppes of Ukraine. The war claimed millions of lives and destroyed the three multinational empires which had dominated the region. The aftermath was a patchwork of fragile, new nation-states and a new Soviet empire. None of the postwar political leaders seemed to grasp the lessons Lloyd draws from the war. Because of the focus on large military campaigns and the industrial-scale logistics at the heart of modern warfare, one might expect a grim account. Fortunately, Lloyd is a solid prose stylist who manages to convey the human drama behind the staggering scale of suffering, sacrifice, folly, and courage.

A respected military historian examines the unknown battlegrounds of a crucial conflict. Even after a century, the bloody, mud-soaked images of World War I are deeply ingrained in the public consciousness. However, that is only one part of a larger picture, according to veteran WWI historian Lloyd, author of The Amritsar Massacre, Hundred Days, and Passchendaele. In Eastern Europe, there was a very different war. This book is the second part of a planned trilogy, following The Western Front (2021). Like the previous installment, the author delves deeply into records and correspondence of the time. Though the outbreak of war was triggered by a political assassination, there were deep-seated tensions and ambitions on all sides that had been simmering for years. When Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia, Russia took the opportunity to launch an offensive, and Germany counterattacked. Russia had huge numbers, but Austria-Hungary knew the territory, and Germany had the advantages of aerial reconnaissance and a reliable transport system. This was a war of maneuver and logistics fought across a broad front, with civilians caught in the middle. Lloyd capably lays out the strategies of each side, examining why certain battles were won or lost. A key point was the constant drain of Germany's men and resources, which fatally weakened its army in the West. The final count in the East, according to Lloyd, was 16 million soldiers dead and 2 million wounded. Furthermore, the Austrian-Hungarian and Russian empires collapsed, presaging at least a decade of instability. This is an unquestionably compelling story, but Lloyd sometimes becomes bogged in the complexity and details of the narrative. Aficionados of military history will enjoy the book, but general readers may find it heavy going. With a wealth of research material, Lloyd reveals a different side to the war that would shape the 20th century. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.