Book Review (sorta): The Modern Scholar: World War I: The Great War and the World It Made

I'm sitting here at work on my lunch break, and I figured I ought to post a book review while I'm not doing anything else useful.  Well, except that I'm eating my wife's goulash (hamburger, macaroni noodles and spaghetti sauce - yum) and listening to "Baby Come Back" on the overhead speakers.  Aren't you glad you can't hear me singing along?  Too bad blogging is mostly a written thing, as sometimes you miss out on some of the finer details.  Personally, I can't wait until they come up with "smell-o-vision..."  well, then again, maybe I can wait.  That'd take the old "pull my finger" joke and make it potentially into an "app."  Shudder.

Source: GoodReads.com

The Modern Scholar: World War I: The Great War and the World It Made, by John Ramsden

From the book’s cover: (this is strictly an audiobook, so it really has no cover to speak of)

"The Great War", as it was known at the time, was also said to be the "war to end all wars". It seized all of Europe and much of the rest of the world in its grip of death and destruction.

The first truly modern war, it changed how war and peace would be conducted throughout the remainder of the 20th century and even to the present. The Great War was a time of "firsts" and opened the door to the modern era. Almost all the major developed countries had a role to play in this war, as they never had before. This was the first time for fighting on land, at sea, and in the air. Modern weapons and munitions were developed in previously unimaginable quantities.

By the end of the war, international politics, the relationships between the individual and the state, gender relations, and the role of artists and the media were all drastically changed.

World War I laid the foundation for the modern world. This course examines the major events of the war to further understand how they led to the shaping of this new world.

Synopsis:

The Modern Scholar: World War I: The Great War and the World It Made, is an audiobook/lecture series narrated by the author, John Ramsden.  It covers World War I from a variety of viewpoints, both militarily, socially, politically and historically.  The series discusses the battles of the war, it is true, but it also discusses the political climate that surrounded both the war’s beginning, and the internal conflicts going on as the war progressed (such as the Russian Revolution, which brought about the end of the Tsarist period in that nation, and also the political climate in the United States, who had long remained neutral until Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic Ocean).

The late John Ramsden (1947 - 2009) / Source: The Guardian.co.uk

What I liked about it:

The lecture series is highly informative, and is handled in a manner that covers both information relevant to the time and the impact the events had upon the world we live in today.  It is unfortunate that I didn’t get time to write this review closer to the time in which I finished the lecture series, or I could give more direct examples of things from it that I quite enjoyed.  Suffice it to say, I liked this series, and would be interested in “reading”/listening to more like it.


What I learned, if anything:

I learned a great deal.  The political climate that existed before the so-called “Great War,” for one.  And the relevance of the Schlieffen Plan, which was what Germany put in motion when it began to mobilize its force for war.  What is the Schlieffen Plan, you ask?  Glad you did.  It was the German’s operational plan that said in the case of a war between Germany and either France or Russia (who were allies at the time, and so they would come to each other’s aid in case of a conflict) that Germany would first turn its military attention toward France, assuming that the Russians would be too slow to mobilize and bring the fight to Germany as quickly as the French.  This didn’t work out exactly as planned, as the Russians, though admittedly backward compared to European contemporaries, were much more advanced than when the Schlieffen Plan was first written in the nineteenth century.  Thus the Germans had their hands full on both the Western and the Eastern Front, and it was only the ineptitude of the Russians command structure that caused the Russians to do so poorly.


The Schlieffen Plan in all its glory / Source: Wikipedia.com


This was only one thing out of many that I learned from this lecture course.  There were many others, but I won’t go into them all.  The stuff on the end of the war was particularly fascinating, as it related directly to the inter-war years that would culminate in World War II, and the state of affairs that have, in all truth, created the modern world we live in today.  Without WWI, there would have been no WWII, and without WWII, the conditions that brought about the Cold War wouldn’t have happened, and without the Cold War, the world would be a very different place today, both in good ways, and in some no so good ways, I believe.  Anyway, let’s leave it by saying that this lecture series is full of useful information.  Anyone who took the time to listen to it would learn more about this pivotal event in our semi-recent human history

What I didn’t like about it:

Hmmm... let me see.  Can’t think of anything specific, to be honest.  The guy speaks with a British accent?  Not good enough a gripe, you say?  

Could it be possible to argue that he covers too much information?  I don’t know.  Some people who were only interested in looking at World War I as being the conflict on the Western Front might say he was doing too much with the other regions, I suppose.  I didn’t think so.  The Great War had more than just trench warfare, after all.  It was interesting to learn about the struggles of these early twentieth century peoples, and so I can’t think of anything in the series that I specifically didn’t like.

Recommendation:

Yes, definitely.  Of course, it is about World War I, and many people might not see the relevance of the subject to our day and age.  But I caution you, dear reader, to overlook your potential prejudices and give this lecture series a try.  You can fade out a bit through the warfare parts, if that isn’t your thing.  The lecture series covers more than just that, and it is well worth your time to give it a listen.


The parting comment:

Source: 1000FunFacts.com

In the spirit of the book review, I searched for "World War I funny picture" and got this.  Whatever it is he just tried, it can't be very good.  And there's all his mates to cheer him on.  That's comradery for ya.