Author Description

It is one of the essential events of military history, a cataclysmic encounter that prevented a quick German victory in World War I and changed the course of two wars. This is a bold new account of the Battle of the Marne, giving, for the first time, all sides of the story. Military historian Holger H. Herwig reinterprets Germany's aggressive Schlieffen Plan as a carefully crafted design to avoid a protracted war against superior coalitions. He also provides cameos of the important players. In remarkable detail, and with exclusive information based on newly unearthed documents, Herwig re-creates the dramatic battle, revealing how the uncoordinated German forces were foiled and years of brutal trench warfare were made inevitable.--From publisher description.