Absolute Destruction : : Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany / / Isabel V. Hull.

In a book that is at once a major contribution to modern European history and a cautionary tale for today, Isabel V. Hull argues that the routines and practices of the Imperial German Army, unchecked by effective civilian institutions, increasingly sought the absolute destruction of its enemies as t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013
VerfasserIn:
Place / Publishing House:Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2013]
©2013
Year of Publication:2013
Language:English
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (400 p.) :; 5 maps, 1 table, 16 halftones
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
LEADER 04983nam a22007095i 4500
001 9780801467097
003 DE-B1597
005 20220302035458.0
006 m|||||o||d||||||||
007 cr || ||||||||
008 220302t20132013nyu fo d z eng d
020 |a 9780801467097 
024 7 |a 10.7591/9780801467097  |2 doi 
035 |a (DE-B1597)535878 
035 |a (OCoLC)1121052514 
040 |a DE-B1597  |b eng  |c DE-B1597  |e rda 
041 0 |a eng 
044 |a nyu  |c US-NY 
050 4 |a DD103  |b .H85 2005 
072 7 |a HIS014000  |2 bisacsh 
082 0 4 |a 355.0213094309034 
100 1 |a Hull, Isabel V.,   |e author.  |4 aut  |4 http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut 
245 1 0 |a Absolute Destruction :  |b Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany /  |c Isabel V. Hull. 
264 1 |a Ithaca, NY :   |b Cornell University Press,   |c [2013] 
264 4 |c ©2013 
300 |a 1 online resource (400 p.) :  |b 5 maps, 1 table, 16 halftones 
336 |a text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a computer  |b c  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a online resource  |b cr  |2 rdacarrier 
347 |a text file  |b PDF  |2 rda 
505 0 0 |t Frontmatter --   |t Contents --   |t Maps --   |t Acknowledgments --   |t Abbreviations --   |t Introduction --   |t PART I. Suppression Becomes Annihilation: Southwest Africa, 1904-1907 --   |t PART II. Military Culture --   |t PART III. The First World War --   |t Conclusions and Implications --   |t Bibliography --   |t Index 
506 0 |a restricted access  |u http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec  |f online access with authorization  |2 star 
520 |a In a book that is at once a major contribution to modern European history and a cautionary tale for today, Isabel V. Hull argues that the routines and practices of the Imperial German Army, unchecked by effective civilian institutions, increasingly sought the absolute destruction of its enemies as the only guarantee of the nation's security. So deeply embedded were the assumptions and procedures of this distinctively German military culture that the Army, in its drive to annihilate the enemy military, did not shrink from the utter destruction of civilian property and lives. Carried to its extreme, the logic of "military necessity" found real security only in extremities of destruction, in the "silence of the graveyard."Hull begins with a dramatic account, based on fresh archival work, of the German Army's slide from administrative murder to genocide in German Southwest Africa (1904-7). The author then moves back to 1870 and the war that inaugurated the Imperial era in German history, and analyzes the genesis and nature of this specifically German military culture and its operations in colonial warfare. In the First World War the routines perfected in the colonies were visited upon European populations. Hull focuses on one set of cases (Belgium and northern France) in which the transition to total destruction was checked (if barely) and on another (Armenia) in which "military necessity" caused Germany to accept its ally's genocidal policies even after these became militarily counterproductive. She then turns to the Endkampf (1918), the German General Staff's plan to achieve victory in the Great War even if the homeland were destroyed in the process-a seemingly insane campaign that completes the logic of this deeply institutionalized set of military routines and practices. Hull concludes by speculating on the role of this distinctive military culture in National Socialism's military and racial policies.Absolute Destruction has serious implications for the nature of warmaking in any modern power. At its heart is a warning about the blindness of bureaucratic routines, especially when those bureaucracies command the instruments of mass death. 
530 |a Issued also in print. 
538 |a Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. 
546 |a In English. 
588 0 |a Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022) 
650 0 |a Militarism  |z Germany  |x History. 
650 4 |a Europe. 
650 4 |a History. 
650 4 |a Military History. 
650 7 |a HISTORY / Europe / Germany.  |2 bisacsh 
773 0 8 |i Title is part of eBook package:  |d De Gruyter  |t Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013  |z 9783110536157 
776 0 |c print  |z 9780801442582 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801467097 
856 4 0 |u https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780801467097 
856 4 2 |3 Cover  |u https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780801467097/original 
912 |a 978-3-11-053615-7 Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013  |c 2000  |d 2013 
912 |a EBA_BACKALL 
912 |a EBA_CL_HICS 
912 |a EBA_EBACKALL 
912 |a EBA_EBKALL 
912 |a EBA_ECL_HICS 
912 |a EBA_EEBKALL 
912 |a EBA_ESSHALL 
912 |a EBA_PPALL 
912 |a EBA_SSHALL 
912 |a GBV-deGruyter-alles 
912 |a PDA11SSHE 
912 |a PDA13ENGE 
912 |a PDA17SSHEE 
912 |a PDA5EBK