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The Kaiser's Army: The Politics of Military Technology in Germany during the Machine Age, 1870-1918. By Eric Dorn Brose. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-514335-3. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 318. $35.00.
Eric Dorn Brose has tackled the thorny question of how good the German army was at the beginning of World War I. The Allied armies of 1914-18 are usually held up as incompetent in comparison to Germanic military efficiency, but closer examination reveals that the Germans had many flaws.
The rosy glow of the Franco-Prussian War led Germany to retain many older officers and to exalt some tactics that had worked, including cavalry charges. This formed the foundation for broadly conservative doctrine in coming years, despite reformers constantly urging new...