Instrument of War: The German Army 1914–18 (General Military) Hardcover – November 22, 2016

Professor Showalter is a great lecturer and his writing is like his speaking style. He has some fresh insights for the specialist, but for the most part this book will serve best as an intro to the German Army's role in WWI for the intelligent and well-read non-specialist. "Instrument of War" could use some (fairly minor) editing/proof-reading for the sake of clarity and to correct a few bloopers: my favorite was about the "German General Stairs Railroad Section." (I guess the generals had their own staircase.) All in all, however, a fine book. The theme of this book is the inward-looking nature of the officer corps, concentrating on tactics, weaponry, and operations, to the detriment of broader strategic and diplomatic/political policy, Thus the Army did not plot to begin WWI, if only because it couldn't think at such a high level of planning/plotting. Specialists will not be surprised at such a conclusion, nor at the idea that Ludendorff botched the political/diplomatic and strategic handling of the War's last two years. Rather than seeing Ludendorff as a sinister or mentally unbalanced tyrant, Showalter sees him as a product of the very nature of the Army's culture. The author is quite balanced and convincing in his arguments. I recommend this book highly. Karl G. Larew, Professor Emeritus, Towson University

Without making any grand claims on groundbreaking research, Showalter delivers a superb 1-volume book on the German Army's strategic and tactical development (describing successes and failures equally objectively) over 1914-18.He also links the army's role to German society and political evolution over the period, and the book is brought to life buy many anecdotes and quotes from ordinary soldiers and generals alike.I have read many books on WW1 and the German war effort, and this is really a superb 'sleeper'. Highly recommended.

As a military historian myself (non-professional), I purchased this book after finding David Stone's book, "The Kaiser's Army", an excellent reference but not very readable from cover to cover.I was hoping to read a history of the WWI German Army that was similar to Doughty's excellent history of the WWI French Army, "Phyrric Victory". Unfortunately, this book seems to entirely miss the point.After reading about a third of the book, I find that the author appears to be writing about everything but the German Army itself. He seems to completely ignore the history of the initial thrust into France in 1914 in these initial pages, while only providing some basic but rather disjointed information about the issues with the two armies on the right flank of the initial invasion.Once out of this period, the author spends a lot of time discussing sociology of the German nation and its responses to the war. However, even here, there are some things that do not appear to add up based on what we actually do know about the German Army at this time. For example, the author describes a nation on the verge of collapse by the middle of 1915. Yet, Germany goes on to summarily defeat the Allies by the winter of 1917. So though there were obviously hardships for the German nation such hardships did not preclude a collapse as Germany continued to fight through November 1918.Another aspect I found quite disconcerting was the author's emphasis on the emerging field of psychology that seemed to brutalize its shell-shocked patients with torture-like techniques to get them to return to duty. As this may have been the case in some situations, I have a hard time believing that psychologists even back then did not track the results of their efforts only to find them relatively useless...While the author presents a picture of an army that was lacking in serious cohesion, Stone's book demonstrates just the opposite was true as the army was very well prepared in terms of training and morale for initial phases of WWI.And as another commenter found, I have also found the author's writing style overly complex and disjointed with his sentence structures, with quite a few not even making any grammatical sense.Though I will finish this book merely to get a better understanding of the author's viewpoints, this is hardly a book I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn about the WWI Imperial German Army. David Stone's book even provided a much better detailed history on the German Army's training alone (something this book does not really touch upon all that well) in his initial pages in his work.

Ties together many threads (pre-war training, politics, economic necessity, manpower issues) into a cohesive whole. A very sober assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Imperial German Army.

excellent book on the German army and how it adapted from the lessons learned and how they where implemented in WWI

Nice detailed look at the Imperial German army.

Great information good read

Good book for history buffs.

I was seeking a single volume on the German Army during World War One and this appeared to fit the bill, sound academic background of the author and the publisher, Osprey, has such a good reputation. Had I been seeking more detail on a year by year basis, then I would have gone for Jack Sheldon`s series on the German Army in WW1. Did the book live up to expectations - yes and no - Showalter does cover a massive area, civil, military and political and does well to cram it into a single volume but - and here I am not sure if it is the writer`s error or poor proof reading but there are a number of errors - too many in my opinion. The major one is the comments about the British getting bogged down in the CLAY of the Somme whereas in fact the Somme area is chalk - the Germans could never have dug their subterranean dugouts which protected them from the British bombardments had the land geology been clay. Also annoying is references to the American Civil War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War - unnecessary in my opinion. If you are looking for a single volume on the German Army 1914-18 then despite the above misgivings, it fits the bill

It is well written and I thought it was thought provoking. It tells a compelling narrative of the First World War German Army's strengths and weaknesses. It pursues a theme of a nation's army being a learning institution (if some times slow) but how the conclusions change as the adversary is also learning.It is better than I expected, because I thought it would follow the usual narratives of the battles.

Excellent Analysis

A thorough and exacting work.