LEADER 02671cam a2200337Ii 4500001    275527
005    20200228100202.0
008    190518t20202020nyuab  e      001 0 eng d
035    (OCoLC)on1101520374
040    YDX |beng |erda |cYDX |dJAS |dLHM
020    1541697308
020    9781541697300
050  4 D557.P7 |bW38 2020
049    LHMA
100 1  Watson, Alexander, |d1979- |eauthor.
245 14 The Fortress : |bthe siege of Przemyśl and the making of Europe's bloodlands / |cAlexander Watson.
250    First edition.
264  1 New York : |bBasic Books, |c2020.
264  4  |c©2020
300    xxv, 367 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : |billustrations, maps ; |c24 cm
336    text |btxt |2rdacontent
337    unmediated |bn |2rdamedia
338    volume |bnc |2rdacarrier
500    Maps on liner papers.
504    Includes bibliographical references and index.
520    In the autumn of 1914 Europe was at war. The battling powers had already suffered casualties on a scale previously unimaginable. On both the Western and Eastern fronts elaborate war plans lay in ruins and had been discarded in favour of desperate improvisation. In the West this resulted in the remorseless world of the trenches; in the East all eyes were focused on the old, beleaguered Austro-Hungarian fortress of Przemysl. The great siege that unfolded at Przemysl was the longest of the whole war. In the defence of the fortress and the struggle to relieve it Austria-Hungary suffered some 800,000 casualties. Almost unknown in the West, this was one of the great turning points of the conflict. If the Russians had broken through they could have invaded Central Europe, but by the time the fortress fell their strength was so sapped they could go no further. Alexander Watson, prize-winning author of Ring of Steel, has written one of the great epics of the First World War. Comparable to Stalingrad in 1942-3, Przemysl shaped the course of Europe's future. Neither Russians nor Austro-Hungarians ever recovered from their disasters. Using a huge range of sources, Watson brilliantly recreates a world of long-gone empires, broken armies and a cut-off community sliding into chaos. The siege was central to the war itself, but also a chilling harbinger of what would engulf the entire region in the coming decades, as nationalism, anti-semitism and an exterminatory fury took hold.
651  0 Przemyśl (Poland) |xHistory |ySiege, 1914-1915.
650  0 World War, 1914-1918 |xCampaigns |zPoland |zPrzemyśl.
650  0 World War, 1914-1918 |zAustria.
650  0 World War, 1914-1918 |zRussia.
852 0   |bscstacks |hD557.P7 |iW38 2020