Tuchman Barbara W. The Guns of August

Macmillan, 1962ISBN: 0553254014550 pgs.PDF129MBThis is the history of the outbreak of World War One and the first military campaigns, particularly the German invasion of Belgium and France. This was an attempt to win the war quickly but it failed. This book tells of the generals and politicians involved, their goals, preconceptions, expectations, and-for most of them-their failures. The dashing of hopes in August of 1914 was the prelude to four long years of trench warfare.