Killing Season: The Autumn of 1914, Ypres, and the Afternoon That Cost Germany a War
Killing Season: The Autumn of 1914, Ypres, and the Afternoon That Cost Germany a War
Killing Season: The Autumn of 1914, Ypres, and the Afternoon That Cost Germany a War
Description
Description
An in-depth account of the First Battle of Ypres, a turning point in World War I--and in the history of warfare The First Battle of Ypres changed how wars are fought. Ypres was the staging ground for the realization that bullets rather than bayonets would be the weapon of the future. It gave birth to "no-man's-land," that spectral space of shattered trees and pockmarked earth, a battleground where thousands of men fought to gain thirty feet of territory, only to lose it again the next day. Ypres was where the commanding officers of both sides--many of whom knew about war only through studying it in a classroom--realized that the combination of grand cavalry maneuvers and gallant charges with twentieth-century weapons was a losing, fatal one. From Sir John French, the compulsive womanizer who led Britain's forces, to Albert of Belgium, who may have been history's last warrior king, down to the young staff officers and military journalists, Robert Cowley brings Ypres to life, using the accounts of commanders and soldiers alike. Weaving together a wide array of source material based on thirty years of research, Cowley explores the extent to which the Germans' rigid training cost them thousands of men, debunks the myth of the "singing attacks," and reveals a crucial, overlooked "What if?" of history: the afternoon of October 31, 1914, when the Germans hesitated to attack the depleted British forces and lost their best chance of winning the Western Front.
About the Author
About the Author
Robert Cowley is an authority on American and European military history whose writing spans the Civil War to World War II. He has held several senior positions in book and magazine publishing and is the founding editor of the award-winning MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. Cowley has also written and edited three collections of essays in counterfactual history known as What If?, and he is the author of the forthcoming book The Killing Season, a history of the first Battle of Ypres and the beginning of World War I. As part of his research, he drove and walked the entire length of the Western Front. He lives in Newport, Rhode Island.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"A gripping literary and historical account, centered on the first four months of fluid movement surrounding the 1914 first battle of Ypres . . . revisionist and original military history at its finest."--Victor Davis Hanson, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Everything "Robert Cowley's The Killing Season is a thrilling and compellingly readable account of the Battle of Ypres in October 1914, a pivotal moment which ended the war of movement and ushered in the four years of trench warfare which would cost millions of lives on both sides. . . . a magnificent, monumental achievement."--Michael Korda, author of Muse of Fire "Among military historians, nobody is better than Robert Cowley at breathing new life into long dead battles, demonstrating their true significance by presenting us with a host of key but never fully-considered factors. The Killing Season, the product of three decades of research, is a triumph of retrospection and reconsideration; but so well-written it's easy to forget how much new ground is being broken. My advice is simple: Read This Book."--Robert L. O'Connell, author of Revolutionary "The Killing Season has all the elements of an epic. A bloody, consequential battle, a cast of heroic characters, taut writing, superb research, and an unputdownable story, all make Cowley's a great book. It will stand as a classic of military history."--Barry S. Strauss, author of The War that Made the Roman Empire "The Killing Season crackles with excitement. With a novelist's eye for drama and a historian's mastery of detail, Cowley delivers a powerfully immersive experience for the reader, viscerally conveying the sheer folly of a conflict that decimated Europe. . . . A deeply moving book that brings back one of the most important autumns of the twentieth century."--Ted Widmer, author of Lincoln on the Verge "This is a masterful and heartbreaking book. If you want to know how modern warfare began, The Killing Season is for you."--Geoffrey C. Ward, co-author of The Civil War, The War, and Vietnam
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Random House
Pub date:
2025-09-02
Length:
752 pages
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