Ring of Steel

For the empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary the Great War - which had begun with such high hopes for a fast, dramatic outcome - rapidly degenerated as invasions of both France and Serbia ended in catastrophe. For four years the fighting now turned into a siege on a quite monstrous scale. Europe became the focus of fighting of a kind previously unimagined. Despite local successes - and an apparent triumph in Russia - Germany and Austria-Hungary were never able to break out of the the Allies´ ring of steel.
Alexander Watson´s compelling history of the Great War shows all the major events of the war from the perspective of Berlin and Vienna - and tells how the genuine mass enthusiasm that flooded both these empires in 1914 turned into a devastating and nation-altering mood of disillusionment.