Instrument of War: The German Army 1914-18

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.

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

Dennis Showalter is professor of History at Colorado College, and was president of the American Society of Military History between 1997 and 2000. He is the Founding Editor of War in History, an advising fellow of the Barsanti Military History Center, and has taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Military Academy, and Marine Corps University. He won the Paul M. Birdsall Prize for Tannenberg and received a Festschrift called Arms and the Man: Military History Essays in Honor of Dennis Showalter. He lives in Colorado Springs, CO, USA.