
Dynamic of Destruction
Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War
Kramer(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 6. November 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
450 pages
978-0-19-954377-9 (ISBN)
Description
On 26 August 1914 the world-famous university library in the Belgian town of Louvain was looted and destroyed by German troops. The international community reacted in horror - 'Holocaust at Louvain' proclaimed the Daily Mail - and the behaviour of the Germans at Louvain came to be seen as the beginning of a different style of war, without the rules that had governed military conflict up to that point - a more total war, in which enemy civilians and their entire culture were now 'legitimate' targets.
Yet the destruction at Louvain was simply one symbolic moment in a wider wave of cultural destruction and mass killing that swept Europe in the era of the First World War. Using a wide range of examples and eye-witness accounts from across Europe at this time, award-winning historian Alan Kramer paints a picture of an entire continent plunging into a chilling new world of mass mobilization, total warfare, and the celebration of nationalist or ethnic violence - often directed expressly at the enemy's civilian population.
Yet the destruction at Louvain was simply one symbolic moment in a wider wave of cultural destruction and mass killing that swept Europe in the era of the First World War. Using a wide range of examples and eye-witness accounts from across Europe at this time, award-winning historian Alan Kramer paints a picture of an entire continent plunging into a chilling new world of mass mobilization, total warfare, and the celebration of nationalist or ethnic violence - often directed expressly at the enemy's civilian population.
Reviews / Votes
This stimulating, scholarly and shrewd book is as rich in original ideas as it is energetic in its revisionism. * Simon Sebag-Montefiore, New York Times Review of Books * [Kramer's] material is as fascinating as it is depressing. * Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs * A sobering book with a bleak message, but one that needs to be heard. * Malcolm Brown, BBC History Magazine. d * No serious student of the history of the twentieth century can afford to ignore this book. * Jay Winter, author of 'Remembering War' *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Illustrations
numerous halftones
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
568 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-954377-9 (9780199543779)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2008
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€15.49
Available for download

E-Book
11/2008
OUP eBook
€15.49
Available for download

Book
07/2007
Oxford University Press
€23.51
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Person
Alan Kramer is Professor of History and fellow of Trinity College Dublin.
Content
1. The Burning of Louvain ; 2. The Radicalization of Warfare ; 3. The Warriors ; 4. German Singularity? ; 5. Culture and War ; 6. Trench Warfare and its Consequences ; 7. War, bodies, and minds ; 8. Victory or trauma? ; Conclusion ; Historiographical Note ; Bibliography