Robert Gerwarth

When the WW I armistice was declared, the violence did not really end. In many ways it seemed to begin again. Traditional history books see 1918 as the end of WW I, restoring the world to peace. Gerwarth uses this book to show that the war did not really end in 1918 and that the end of the war unleashed countless other conflicts.

The great thing about this book is that it provides an overview of what happened throughout Europe in the years after the war ended. This is also the disadvantage of the book - so much happened in so many different countries that it is often difficult for the reader to keep things straight. The information provided is invaluable but the book is a challenge to read.

Gerwarth has recently published November 1918 about the revolution in Germany. This is a much better book because it can focus more.… (més)

Although an understanding of the German revolutions of November 1918 is essential for understanding what led to WW II, the events of this period are only covered with short sketches in most history books. Those short sketches generally leave readers more confused than enlightened. Robert Gerwarth’s new book November 1918 provides a more detailed portrait of those events that is exhaustive without being exhausting for the reader. The result for the reader is much deeper understanding of these revolutions as well as the last years of WW I.

The book includes some wonderful photographs from the period as well as many quotes from diverse eye-witnesses to the events. Gerwarth is also kind enough to provide short reminders of who the characters are when they reappear in later chapters even if he introduced them in the beginning of the book. The book is also a real page-turner that I had a hard time putting down.

I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in the history of the world wars.… (més)

A well-written and vivid account of the immediate post-war period of 1917-1923 in East-Central Europe. Covers the most significant issues and conflicts with appropriate detail, emphasising the rise of revolutionary and nationalist paramilitarism and the great extent of hardship and brutal atrocity. For many countries, this period was even more severe than the Great War preceding it, and has left a deeper scar in national memory. This period’s significance, for Gerwarth, is that its upheaval, extremism, and diplomacy laid the foundation for the Second World War. The book’s scope is tightly reined and so, to its absolute merit, over a third of the book’s length is comprised of endnotes and bibliography, meaning that there is plentiful further reading to be perused by anyone interested in the hundreds of micro-topics tackled. For an overview, this is everything I would hope for in history-writing, and the fact that it is highly engaging and smartly structured is an added bonus.… (més)