Drawing on more than a half-century of research and teaching, Dennis Showalter presents a fresh perspective on the German Army during World War I. Showalter surveys an army at the heart of a national identity, driven by--yet also defeated by--warfare in the modern age, that struggled to capitalize on its victories, and ultimately forgot the lessons of its defeat.

Exploring the internal dynamics of the German Army, detailing how the soldiers coped with the many new forms of warfare, Showalter shows how the army's institutions responded to and how Germany itself was changed by war. He goes on to detail the major campaigns on the Western and Eastern Fronts and the forgotten war fought in the Middle East and Africa, revealing operational strategy, the complexities of campaigns of movement versus static trench warfare, and the effects of changes in warfare.

Winner of the 2016 Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Book Prize, in association with the World War One Historical Association.

About the Author

Dennis Showalter was a professor of history at Colorado College who specializes in German military history. He was president of the American Society for Military History from 1997 to 2001. In addition, Showalter was an advising fellow of the Barsanti Military History Center at the University of North Texas. Showalter had previously taught at the United States Air Force Academy, the United States Military Academy, and the Marine Corps University. He has written extensively on the wars of Frederick the Great, the German Wars of Unification, World War I, and World War II. Tannenberg won the American Historical Association's Paul M. Birdsall Prize for best new book of 1992.  He was awarded the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing in 2018.