Description: Wlodzimierz Borodziej and Maciej Górny set out to salvage the historical memory of the experience of war in the lands between Riga and Skopje, beginning with the two Balkan conflicts of 1912-1913 and ending with the death of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1916. The First World War in the East and South-East of Europe was fought by people from a multitude of different nationalities, most of them dressed in the uniforms of three imperial armies: Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian. In this first volume of Forgotten Wars, the authors chart the origins and outbreak of the First World War, the early battles, and the war's impact on ordinary soldiers and civilians through to the end of the Romanian campaign in December 1916, by which point the Central Powers controlled all of the Balkans except for the Peloponnese. Combining military and social history, the authors make extensive use of eyewitness accounts to describe the traumatic experience that established a region stretching between the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas.
Brief description: Wlodzimierz Borodziej is Professor for Contemporary History at the University of Warsaw.
Review Quotes: 'A seminal work of meticulous historical research that is as impressively informative as it is exceptionally well organized and presented, Forgotten Wars: Central and Eastern Europe, 1912 - 1916 is unreservedly recommended for community, college and university library 20th Century Military History collections and supplemental studies curriculums. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, military history buffs and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject... ' Midwest Book Review