[books i've been reading]

fine reading for Anchor Grill

The Battles of World War I

by Christopher Catherwood

Catherwood gives a brief survey of World War One, focusing on what he identifies as the key battles. Most of the book looks at the bloodiest battles of the war, from both the Western and Eastern fronts; and being a student of the Middle East, he pays particular attention to the Egyptian and Mesopotamian campaigns and how the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire led to the Middle East crisis we have today. The meat of this book is found in Catherwood's connections between World War One, World War 2, the Cold War, and present day conflicts in Syria. He spins a meticulous web showing how events a hundred years ago have shaped our modern world and modern politics. Below are a couple great quotes showing these connections.

*  *  *

Why is World War One important? "Not only were [the politicians of nineteenth century Europe] launching the 'Great War' but everything that stemmed from it: World War II, the Holocaust, the Cold War, Stalin and Mao's purges, the Middle East conflict and all the horrors with which we are still living today." (36)

"Because of World War I many of the extraordinary events and creations of the twentieth century came about. Outstanding examples would include: the Russian Revolution, the rise of Nazism, World War II, the origins of the state of Israel, and the creation of several new countries without regard for ethnic mix or ancient rivalries." (11)

"Communism came to power as a result of the stalemate on the Eastern front. So desperate were the Germans to get Russia out of the war that they sent Lenin back home from exile in Switzerland. The plot worked. The Communists under Lenin took power and withdrew from the conflict. But the world then had seventy-four years of the USSR." (14)

"[With] no British capture of Jerusalem in 1917 there would have been no Israel to create thirty-one years later. Similarly, without the capture of Damascus in 1918 there might have been no Syria in existence to have a civil war in our own time." (14)

"One legacy of [World War One] is the situation in today's Middle East... Once part of the vast Ottoman Empire, Syria was seized by the French as a spoil of war, despite that region being liberated by Australian, British and Arab forces towards the end of World War I. Many of the major problems of the Balkans in the 1990s and the endless violence of the twenty-first century Middle East stem from the outcome of [several] battles..." (21)

"There is general agreement that World War II was caused by the inconclusive end to the fighting in 1918. So too, one can argue, was the Cold War. In fact some historians see the various global conflicts as one, either a new Thirty Years' War (1914-1945) or as a 'Short Twentieth Century' of perpetual uncertainty mixed with actual fighting (1914-1989). So the events of 1914 did not just begin four years of war but decades of conflict, certainly up until 1945 and arguably extending to as recently as 1989 and the end of the Cold War." (21)