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August 1914: France, the Great War, and a Month That Changed the World Forever
A haunting portrait of France at war
On August 1, 1914, war erupted into the lives of millions of families across France. Most people thought the conflict would last just a few weeks.
Yet before the month was out, twenty-seven thousand French soldiers died on the single day of August 22 alone—the worst catastrophe in French military history. Refugees streamed into France as the German army advanced, spreading rumors that amplified still more the ordeal of war. Citizens of enemy countries who were living in France were viciously scapegoated. Drawing from diaries, personal correspondence, police reports, and government archives, Bruno Cabanes renders an intimate, narrative-driven study of the first weeks of World War I in France. Told from the perspective of ordinary women and men caught in the flood of mobilization, this revealing book deepens our understanding of the traumatic impact of war on soldiers and civilians alike.
August 1914 was a finalist for a prestigious French book award, the Prix Fémina for nonfiction, in 2014.
On August 1, 1914, war erupted into the lives of millions of families across France. Most people thought the conflict would last just a few weeks.
Yet before the month was out, twenty-seven thousand French soldiers died on the single day of August 22 alone—the worst catastrophe in French military history. Refugees streamed into France as the German army advanced, spreading rumors that amplified still more the ordeal of war. Citizens of enemy countries who were living in France were viciously scapegoated. Drawing from diaries, personal correspondence, police reports, and government archives, Bruno Cabanes renders an intimate, narrative-driven study of the first weeks of World War I in France. Told from the perspective of ordinary women and men caught in the flood of mobilization, this revealing book deepens our understanding of the traumatic impact of war on soldiers and civilians alike.
August 1914 was a finalist for a prestigious French book award, the Prix Fémina for nonfiction, in 2014.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2014
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85 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 11, 2022
Août 14: La France entre en guerre entered the Yale University Press and emerged August 1914: France, the Great War, and the Month that Changed the World Forever. Critics have been making fun of these subtitles for decades, but, really, if you're hustling serious nonfiction to Americans, you need to mix carnival sideshow pizzazz and portent with the promise of an easy, one-stop illumination. The making of, the birth of! All right behind this curtain, folks. The funny part is that this very dry, summary, merely 200-page book reads like a handbook of examination essay themes, for an audience of French students.
October 8, 2020
August 1914: France, the Great War, and a Month That Changed the World Forever by Bruno Cabanes is a detailed account of the first month of World War I. Cabanes received his Ph.D. from the Université Paris-I Panthéon Sorbonne in 2002. He is particularly interested in the period of transition that followed World War I. August 1914 was a finalist for a prestigious French book award, the Prix Fémina for nonfiction, in 2014.
Over the last few years, countless books have been published and re-released for the 100th anniversary of the First World War. In America most center around the war from the American point of view or the British view. Poetry collections from British soldiers in the trenches are easy to find. The story of the Lafayette Escadrille is well known. Books on German aggression and the Russian revolution are also easy to find. I have even read a few books on the war on the eastern front. I have not read a book from the French view.
Cabanes book present the French view on the war. The facts are the same as many other books but the details and presentation are new. The French Plan XXVII and its execution are covered in detail. Its (as well as the Schlieffen Plan's) failures and successes are covered. Joffre's execution of the plan and its adaptations are well explained. The British are seen in a less decisive role and Joffre despite his early failures comes through as the mastermind that held the French army together and essentially saved France. Trench warfare is generally seen as a disaster, but digging in is what saved France from being overrun.
The idea of fighting another war against Germany (Prussia) was not a central plan for much of France. Labor unions and Socialists opposed the idea war and present a good deal of resistance to military build up and conscription laws. Cabanes gives the reader an inside look at the mood and politics inside France before the war. It takes a great deal of effort to change people's minds from peace to going to war. For example, the United States did not enter the war until 1917. Wilson ran on a peace platform even though he knew that war was inevitable. It took the American population longer to accept that. Even after the start of the war stories of German agents giving poisoned candy to children flowed freely through the French population. People were instructed to be on the lookout for German spies. Once the war started an effort to keep the momentum going in popular opinion continued.
World War I has been called the first modern war. It was a mix -- Horse cavalry and the machine gun. The civilian population and property became targets as the rape of Belgium soon proved. Railways sped up mobilization and telephone and telegraphs kept military leadership informed of the war but at a safe distance from the fighting. The mismatch in technology and military tradition helped increase the slaughter. On August 22, 1914, alone, the French suffered 27,000 deaths in fighting. From August 5th -September 5th, French casualties totaled 329,000.
As I read this book, I was also listening to Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August covering the exact same time period and events. It was interesting to compare and contrast the information presented by an American historian and French historian. Although is often said that the winners write the history, it is interesting how we chose the winners that speak our language to base the overall tone and emotion of events. Highly recommended, not for any new information, but from the point of view that is similar but different from the commonly read American or British views.
Over the last few years, countless books have been published and re-released for the 100th anniversary of the First World War. In America most center around the war from the American point of view or the British view. Poetry collections from British soldiers in the trenches are easy to find. The story of the Lafayette Escadrille is well known. Books on German aggression and the Russian revolution are also easy to find. I have even read a few books on the war on the eastern front. I have not read a book from the French view.
Cabanes book present the French view on the war. The facts are the same as many other books but the details and presentation are new. The French Plan XXVII and its execution are covered in detail. Its (as well as the Schlieffen Plan's) failures and successes are covered. Joffre's execution of the plan and its adaptations are well explained. The British are seen in a less decisive role and Joffre despite his early failures comes through as the mastermind that held the French army together and essentially saved France. Trench warfare is generally seen as a disaster, but digging in is what saved France from being overrun.
The idea of fighting another war against Germany (Prussia) was not a central plan for much of France. Labor unions and Socialists opposed the idea war and present a good deal of resistance to military build up and conscription laws. Cabanes gives the reader an inside look at the mood and politics inside France before the war. It takes a great deal of effort to change people's minds from peace to going to war. For example, the United States did not enter the war until 1917. Wilson ran on a peace platform even though he knew that war was inevitable. It took the American population longer to accept that. Even after the start of the war stories of German agents giving poisoned candy to children flowed freely through the French population. People were instructed to be on the lookout for German spies. Once the war started an effort to keep the momentum going in popular opinion continued.
World War I has been called the first modern war. It was a mix -- Horse cavalry and the machine gun. The civilian population and property became targets as the rape of Belgium soon proved. Railways sped up mobilization and telephone and telegraphs kept military leadership informed of the war but at a safe distance from the fighting. The mismatch in technology and military tradition helped increase the slaughter. On August 22, 1914, alone, the French suffered 27,000 deaths in fighting. From August 5th -September 5th, French casualties totaled 329,000.
As I read this book, I was also listening to Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August covering the exact same time period and events. It was interesting to compare and contrast the information presented by an American historian and French historian. Although is often said that the winners write the history, it is interesting how we chose the winners that speak our language to base the overall tone and emotion of events. Highly recommended, not for any new information, but from the point of view that is similar but different from the commonly read American or British views.
July 26, 2021
This book very clearly shows the dimensions and levels that war brings to France in 1914. I was pleasantly surprised with reading about spy scares, romantic ideas of war, the devastation done to farm life by the mobilization, and the tepid response to going to war as opposed to the cheering crowd which existed but really was a phenomenon.
April 7, 2019
A fascinating little read. It covers the effect of the mobilization on civil society and, to a lesser extent, government and political life. A good break from WW1 books that cover what the armies where doing and when.
May 1, 2020
Fantastic. Captures so much. Lots of parallels with today — rumors and media incompetence.
September 14, 2020
3.5/5 stars - not sure why i insist on taking college classes about war when im pretty sure im a pacifist,, but this was very digestible and interesting
February 24, 2021
Fabulous book about the violence committed against French civilians under German occupation in WW1
March 9, 2017
France experiences war
This book relates in some detail the experience of going to war from Paris to the provinces. How one month changed the lives of millions of Frenchmen and women.
This book relates in some detail the experience of going to war from Paris to the provinces. How one month changed the lives of millions of Frenchmen and women.
March 12, 2017
For somebody who spends a lot of time in Paris, this book was a terrific insight into the first month of World War 1 from a French viewpoint
December 21, 2024
A slender and informative history of the home front in France in the eventful month of August 1914. The author writes about the mass mobilization of soldiers, and what this experience was like for them and for the families they left behind. How bold and confident many felt, as they reported to their regiments to be outfitted in uniforms of blue coats and red trousers. He discusses what life was like in the villages without so many of their men, and how requisition of horses and mules was next. A wave of violence directed at anything perceived as German swept the country in those early weeks, targeting even established French companies that were rumored to be connected to Germany.
Although the thrust of the book is not a military history of the battles in the first month of WW I, Cabanes does describe the horrific losses suffered by both sides in the early Battle of the Frontiers, when tactics were forced to catch up with the destructive power of machine guns and quick firing artillery. The French army suffered 27,000 dead on one day, Aug 22 1914, its worst day in history.
Recommended for students of French history, or of WW I.
Although the thrust of the book is not a military history of the battles in the first month of WW I, Cabanes does describe the horrific losses suffered by both sides in the early Battle of the Frontiers, when tactics were forced to catch up with the destructive power of machine guns and quick firing artillery. The French army suffered 27,000 dead on one day, Aug 22 1914, its worst day in history.
Recommended for students of French history, or of WW I.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews