--- product_id: 4856385 title: "Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War" price: "S$44" currency: SGD in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sg/products/4856385-catastrophe-1914-europe-goes-to-war store_origin: SG region: Singapore --- # Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War **Price:** S$44 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War - **How much does it cost?** S$44 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sg](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/4856385-catastrophe-1914-europe-goes-to-war) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description From the acclaimed military historian, a history of the outbreak of World War I: the dramatic stretch from the breakdown of diplomacy to the battles—the Marne, Ypres, Tannenberg—that marked the frenzied first year before the war bogged down in the trenches. In Catastrophe 1914, Max Hastings gives us a conflict different from the familiar one of barbed wire, mud and futility. He traces the path to war, making clear why Germany and Austria-Hungary were primarily to blame, and describes the gripping first clashes in the West, where the French army marched into action in uniforms of red and blue with flags flying and bands playing. In August, four days after the French suffered 27,000 men dead in a single day, the British fought an extraordinary holding action against oncoming Germans, one of the last of its kind in history. In October, at terrible cost the British held the allied line against massive German assaults in the first battle of Ypres. Hastings also re-creates the lesser-known battles on the Eastern Front, brutal struggles in Serbia, East Prussia and Galicia, where the Germans, Austrians, Russians and Serbs inflicted three million casualties upon one another by Christmas. As he has done in his celebrated, award-winning works on World War II, Hastings gives us frank assessments of generals and political leaders and masterly analyses of the political currents that led the continent to war. He argues passionately against the contention that the war was not worth the cost, maintaining that Germany’s defeat was vital to the freedom of Europe. Throughout we encounter statesmen, generals, peasants, housewives and private soldiers of seven nations in Hastings’s accustomed blend of top-down and bottom-up accounts: generals dismounting to lead troops in bayonet charges over 1,500 feet of open ground; farmers who at first decried the requisition of their horses; infantry men engaged in a haggard retreat, sleeping four hours a night in their haste. This is a vivid new portrait of how a continent became embroiled in war and what befell millions of men and women in a conflict that would change everything. Review: A Well Written History Of A True 'Catastrophe' - This is a well written book on how the First World War started by a noted historian of the Second World War. While alot of us are familiar with World War II, many are not familiar with the war before it. Without an understanding of what occurred then, it is hard to understand the reluctance of those nations trying to stop Hitler and others to resort to war without trying all other avenues first. European nations paid an astronomical cost in the first few months of this war and this book details this in great detail without going to into too much battle description in the grand sense instead keeping the view from the participants to make it more personal. This book also takes the reader away from the battlefields to show how the peoples of the nations involved in the war reacted over the 5 months discussed and how perspectives changed over the course of the victories and defeats that each nation dealt with. The author shows us the members of goverment along with their subjects dealing with changes imposed by the war always with the (hopeful) optimism that it will be over soon and all of the sufferring and loss will be justied by the outcome. As the reality of the duration of conflict starts to dawn on them, it is recognized as a battle of endurance for the nations involved. His concluding chapter is one that I think all those who think they 'know everything' about this period of time should read. With over a century having occurred since the events depicted in this book, there is a tendency for modern readers to think that they could have just stopped. The author looks at this prospect from the view of all of the major combatants as well as giving some foreshadowing of what was to come for the participants in the years both during and after the war. In this last chapter, he shows the governments of the nations involved looking if there is a way to end the fighting, but none of them willing to end it except with an advantage that justifies the cost inflicted. Since this was never going to happen, the fighting will continue. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Max Hasting's books on World War II. He has lost none of his talent for relating these stories even with a change of wars being considered. Also, I would recommend this any readers of Barbara Tuchman's "Guns Of August". Her book written back in the 1960's was an eye-opening introduction to the same themes that are discussed in this book. This is a 50 year later successor to her book and belongs right beside it in any library of World War I. Review: Typical Max Hastings (the good but some bad) - Perhaps because Max Hastings has spent a career as a professional journalist, instead of as an academic historian, he writes history books to which people will voluntarily devote their time and money. Hastings is an often incisive, always entertaining, writer of history. Hastings embodies what Herodotus demonstrated millenia ago, that good history consists of two elements: First, an accurate account of what happened (the facts), and second, a persuasive analysis of why it happened and what else might have happened had humans acted differently (the historian's opinion). It is in the second element that Hastings is always provocative and entertaining. Two of the best books about World War II are his "Inferno" and "Retribution," both of which are written from a British perspective, but offer pungent criticism where it is due to Churchill and the British military elites, as well as others (he is properly brutal towards Douglas MacArthur). Given my deep respect for Hastings from earlier books, I looked forward to his take on the events of 1914, in which Europe suffered a catastrophe from which it has never truly recovered. I was disappointed. This book is largely a lawyer's brief in which Hastings seeks to convict Germany as the primary perpetrator of World War I, while simultaneously exonerating Czarist Russia, revanchist France, and especially imperialist Britain. Hastings, without explicitly naming names, clearly aims to rebut two contemporary English-speaking historians who have published "revisionist" histories about 1914. Niall Ferguson, in "The Pity of War," asserts that Britain's decision to enter the war because of Germany's invasion of Belgium was both hypocritical (Britain and France were both prepared to enter Belgium out of military necessity, the same reason for Germany's incursion), but even worse, it was a horrible blunder. More recently, Christopher Clark, in "The Sleepwalkers," provides overwhelmingly persuasive evidence that none of the major powers (including Germany) really wanted war, but they stumbled into it more through negligence and incompetence than intent. Clark also demonstrates that Russia (egged on by revanchist France) was the first to mobilize, an act of war, and the first to invade another soil (Germany's), giving the German leadership no choice but to mobilize as well, which set in motion irreversible events. Hastings' major theme is that Ferguson and Clark are wrong, that Germany was primarily to blame, that Russia, France and Britain essentially "did the right thing" and those who question that are wrong or deluded. What Hastings never effectively explains or even addresses is this core question: Given the catastrophic consequences of the events of 1914 (millions dead, Europe destroyed, the rise of Nazism, the rise of Marxist-Leninist Russia, a second even more catastrophic world war, followed by the Cold War), how can Hastings or anyone argue that British neutrality in 1914 would not have been preferable? British neutrality in 1914 would have almost certainly have meant German domination of the continent for years to come. Ferguson is perhaps too flippant about that prospect, dismissing it as just an earlier version of the European Union, but Hastings argues that outcome would have been intolerable. But compared to what? Worse than what actually did happen to Europe and the world over the 20th century? Hastings is not persuasive. And he certainly does not rebut Clark's "The Sleepwalkers," the best one-volume account of the events of the summer of 1914 I have ever read. I gave Hastings' book 4 stars rather than his usual 5 because he allows his pro-British bias to mar an otherwise brilliant, well-researched and (as usual) entertaining book. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #112,722 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #14 in World War I History (Books) #16 in European Politics Books #57 in International Diplomacy (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,456 Reviews | ## Images ![Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71v1AJOC1kL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Well Written History Of A True 'Catastrophe' *by A***E on January 18, 2017* This is a well written book on how the First World War started by a noted historian of the Second World War. While alot of us are familiar with World War II, many are not familiar with the war before it. Without an understanding of what occurred then, it is hard to understand the reluctance of those nations trying to stop Hitler and others to resort to war without trying all other avenues first. European nations paid an astronomical cost in the first few months of this war and this book details this in great detail without going to into too much battle description in the grand sense instead keeping the view from the participants to make it more personal. This book also takes the reader away from the battlefields to show how the peoples of the nations involved in the war reacted over the 5 months discussed and how perspectives changed over the course of the victories and defeats that each nation dealt with. The author shows us the members of goverment along with their subjects dealing with changes imposed by the war always with the (hopeful) optimism that it will be over soon and all of the sufferring and loss will be justied by the outcome. As the reality of the duration of conflict starts to dawn on them, it is recognized as a battle of endurance for the nations involved. His concluding chapter is one that I think all those who think they 'know everything' about this period of time should read. With over a century having occurred since the events depicted in this book, there is a tendency for modern readers to think that they could have just stopped. The author looks at this prospect from the view of all of the major combatants as well as giving some foreshadowing of what was to come for the participants in the years both during and after the war. In this last chapter, he shows the governments of the nations involved looking if there is a way to end the fighting, but none of them willing to end it except with an advantage that justifies the cost inflicted. Since this was never going to happen, the fighting will continue. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Max Hasting's books on World War II. He has lost none of his talent for relating these stories even with a change of wars being considered. Also, I would recommend this any readers of Barbara Tuchman's "Guns Of August". Her book written back in the 1960's was an eye-opening introduction to the same themes that are discussed in this book. This is a 50 year later successor to her book and belongs right beside it in any library of World War I. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Typical Max Hastings (the good but some bad) *by C***C on August 21, 2018* Perhaps because Max Hastings has spent a career as a professional journalist, instead of as an academic historian, he writes history books to which people will voluntarily devote their time and money. Hastings is an often incisive, always entertaining, writer of history. Hastings embodies what Herodotus demonstrated millenia ago, that good history consists of two elements: First, an accurate account of what happened (the facts), and second, a persuasive analysis of why it happened and what else might have happened had humans acted differently (the historian's opinion). It is in the second element that Hastings is always provocative and entertaining. Two of the best books about World War II are his "Inferno" and "Retribution," both of which are written from a British perspective, but offer pungent criticism where it is due to Churchill and the British military elites, as well as others (he is properly brutal towards Douglas MacArthur). Given my deep respect for Hastings from earlier books, I looked forward to his take on the events of 1914, in which Europe suffered a catastrophe from which it has never truly recovered. I was disappointed. This book is largely a lawyer's brief in which Hastings seeks to convict Germany as the primary perpetrator of World War I, while simultaneously exonerating Czarist Russia, revanchist France, and especially imperialist Britain. Hastings, without explicitly naming names, clearly aims to rebut two contemporary English-speaking historians who have published "revisionist" histories about 1914. Niall Ferguson, in "The Pity of War," asserts that Britain's decision to enter the war because of Germany's invasion of Belgium was both hypocritical (Britain and France were both prepared to enter Belgium out of military necessity, the same reason for Germany's incursion), but even worse, it was a horrible blunder. More recently, Christopher Clark, in "The Sleepwalkers," provides overwhelmingly persuasive evidence that none of the major powers (including Germany) really wanted war, but they stumbled into it more through negligence and incompetence than intent. Clark also demonstrates that Russia (egged on by revanchist France) was the first to mobilize, an act of war, and the first to invade another soil (Germany's), giving the German leadership no choice but to mobilize as well, which set in motion irreversible events. Hastings' major theme is that Ferguson and Clark are wrong, that Germany was primarily to blame, that Russia, France and Britain essentially "did the right thing" and those who question that are wrong or deluded. What Hastings never effectively explains or even addresses is this core question: Given the catastrophic consequences of the events of 1914 (millions dead, Europe destroyed, the rise of Nazism, the rise of Marxist-Leninist Russia, a second even more catastrophic world war, followed by the Cold War), how can Hastings or anyone argue that British neutrality in 1914 would not have been preferable? British neutrality in 1914 would have almost certainly have meant German domination of the continent for years to come. Ferguson is perhaps too flippant about that prospect, dismissing it as just an earlier version of the European Union, but Hastings argues that outcome would have been intolerable. But compared to what? Worse than what actually did happen to Europe and the world over the 20th century? Hastings is not persuasive. And he certainly does not rebut Clark's "The Sleepwalkers," the best one-volume account of the events of the summer of 1914 I have ever read. I gave Hastings' book 4 stars rather than his usual 5 because he allows his pro-British bias to mar an otherwise brilliant, well-researched and (as usual) entertaining book. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A very good history of the war’s first year *by G***N on October 15, 2025* This is an excellent history of the first year of the First World War—though probably more accurate to say the first five months. It is very good at showing that the leaders who took their nations to war were not uniquely stupid or naive but were pursuing particular goals for particular reasons that ended up leading to tragic consequences. I especially appreciated the way in which Hastings made it clear that this war had a purpose—the prevention of German domination of Europe—which was not all that different from that of the Second World War’s. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sg/products/4856385-catastrophe-1914-europe-goes-to-war](https://www.desertcart.sg/products/4856385-catastrophe-1914-europe-goes-to-war) --- *Product available on Desertcart Singapore* *Store origin: SG* *Last updated: 2026-05-19*