Why am I passionate about this?

I retired from Drexel University in 2015 after thirty-six years as a professor of German and European History of the 19th and 20th Centuries. My sub-specialty in the History of Technology carried over into publications that over the years focused increasingly on the Prussian/German Army (The Politics of Technological Change in Prussia [1993] and The Kaiser’s Army [2001]) and naval conflict (Clash of the Capital Ships [2021]).  


I wrote

The Kaiser's Army: The Politics of Military Technology in Germany During the Machine Age, 1870-1918

By Eric Dorn Brose,

Book cover of The Kaiser's Army: The Politics of Military Technology in Germany During the Machine Age, 1870-1918

What is my book about?

Contrary to contemporary and later historical opinion, the German army that entered World War One in 1914 was not a…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth

Eric Dorn Brose Why did I love this book?

Facing a two-front war against France, Britain, and Russia in 1914, Germany opted to strike west first against the French and English; win a quick victory by avoiding French fortresses with an outflanking push through Belgium; and then turn east against the Russians. This operational plan was the brainchild of former Chief of the General Staff Alfred von Schlieffen. In the 1920s, many German generals argued that the inept execution of Schlieffen’s plan explained their loss of the war. Ritter’s work is the classic critique of this argumentation, showing that in reality the flaws of the plan and Schlieffen’s narrow-minded militaristic mindset, not the lesser capabilities of his successors, led to a war of attrition Germany could not win.  

By Gerhard Ritter,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Schlieffen Plan as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Using a copy of the Schlieffen Plan unearthed in 1953, Ritter examines the man and his plan for the German campaign to France through Belgium in 1914.


Book cover of Tannenberg: Clash of Empires, 1914

Eric Dorn Brose Why did I love this book?

In this beautifully written, well-researched book, Showalter explains how German generals won a spectacular victory on the eastern front. Although able to deploy only one army group – while seven were deployed in the west – they prevailed in the famous Battle of Tannenberg (1914) against two ineptly led and poorly armed Russian armies. Germany achieved the kind of success that eluded them in the west, but was unable to knock Russia out of the war – in fact, the victors had only bought time against enemy forces increasing in number. Not until the communist revolution three years later would Germany wriggle free of enemies in the east.

By Dennis E. Showalter,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tannenberg as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The battle of Tannenberg (August 27-30, 1914) opened World War I with a decisive German victory over Russia-indeed the Kaiser's only clear-cut victory in a non-attritional battle during four years of war. In this first paperback edition of the classic work, historian Dennis Showalter analyzes this battle's causes, effects, and implications for subsequent German military policy. The author carefully guides the reader through what actually happened on the battlefield, from its grand strategy down to the level of improvised squad actions. Examining the battle in the context of contemporary diplomatic, political, and economic affairs, Showalter also reviews both armies' social…


Book cover of German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich Von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1916

Eric Dorn Brose Why did I love this book?

Foley’s solid analysis of “the path to Verdun,” a horrible battle in 1916 that inflicted a million casualties, opens with an informative discussion of recent work on the Schlieffen Plan that brings Ritter’s book up to date. Next, he provides an in-depth look at General Staff Chief Erich von Falkenhayn’s attempt to win a sweeping victory on the Eastern Front in 1915. Like Tannenberg, however, extensive gains could not eliminate a vexing enemy. Thus Falkenhayn turned to the west with operational plans almost as ingenious as Schlieffen’s. He wanted to smash through the seemingly impregnable fortress zone of Verdun in a week or so, and then unleash additional forces held in reserve against the British farther north. But the French held; the British unleashed a preemptive offensive of their own astride the Somme River; and the Germans had to desperately hold onto their own lines.   

By Robert T. Foley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked German Strategy and the Path to Verdun as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Almost 90 years since its conclusion, the battle of Verdun is still little understood. German Strategy and the Path to Verdun is a detailed examination of this seminal battle based on research conducted in archives long thought lost. Material returned to Germany from the former Soviet Union has allowed for a reinterpretation of Erich von Falkenhayn's overall strategy for the war and of the development of German operational and tactical concepts to fit this new strategy of attrition. By taking a long view of the development of German military ideas from the end of the Franco-German War in 1871, German…


Book cover of The Defeat of Imperial Germany, 1917-1918

Eric Dorn Brose Why did I love this book?

Paschall brings to this book his insightful experience of army organizations and war as an infantry officer and veteran of the Vietnam conflagration. Readers can follow in detail the allied offensives of 1917, Germany’s last gasp effort to win on the Western Front in 1918 after Russia’s collapse in the east, and the retreat and breakdown of the once impressive German army in the waning months of the war.  

By Rod Paschall,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Defeat of Imperial Germany, 1917-1918 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

January 1917. On the Western Front the armies of Imperial Germany, Great Britain, and France were locked in grim stalemate. Repeated attempts by both sides to achieve breakthrough in the face of machine-gun fire, barbed wire, long-range artillery, and poison gas had brought only enormous casualties. The Defeat of Imperial Germany focuses on the innovative plans created by generals on both sides in their struggles to dislodge the entrenched enemy and to restore maneuver and victory on the Western Front. In a series of vivid analyses of successive offensives, Paschall examines the problems of command and what happened when the…


Book cover of Haig's Enemy: Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germany's War on the Western Front

Eric Dorn Brose Why did I love this book?

Boff’s book, impressively researched with extensive use of rare primary sources, and winner of two impressive British book awards, examines the war life and times of Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht. In high command on the Western Front for the entire war, Rupprecht remained in position to witness the limitations of Prussian generalship, especially in 1914 and 1918; the growing preponderance of allied strength after U.S. entry in 1917; and divisive home front politics throughout Germany. He lost not only the war, but also a son, as well as his throne, which was swept away in the revolutionary upheaval at the war’s end. 

By Jonathan Boff,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Haig's Enemy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

During the First World War, the British Army's most consistent German opponent was Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. Commanding more than a million men as a General, and then Field Marshal, in the Imperial German Army, he held off the attacks of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir John French and then Sir Douglas Haig for four long years. But Rupprecht was to lose not only the war, but his son and his throne.

Haig's Enemy by Jonathan Boff explores the tragic tale of Rupprecht's war-the story of a man caught under the wheels of modern industrial warfare. Providing a…


Explore my book 😀

The Kaiser's Army: The Politics of Military Technology in Germany During the Machine Age, 1870-1918

By Eric Dorn Brose,

Book cover of The Kaiser's Army: The Politics of Military Technology in Germany During the Machine Age, 1870-1918

What is my book about?

Contrary to contemporary and later historical opinion, the German army that entered World War One in 1914 was not a mega-machine-like juggernaut built to smash enemies under its wheels. In fact, older notions of combat stressing human strength and morale overcoming all technological and numerical odds had been so persistent in Germany since defeating France in 1870 that – despite the best efforts of modernizers in the decades before the World War – technological shortcomings factored mightily into Germany’s failure to win a quick and decisive victory on the western front in August and September 1914. The result: defeat in a longer war of attrition against a coalition of more powerful enemies.     

Book cover of The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth
Book cover of Tannenberg: Clash of Empires, 1914
Book cover of German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich Von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1916

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Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS

By Amy Carney,

Book cover of Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author Historian Professor Curl up with a good book reader Traveler – Berlin is my happy place!

Amy's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

When I was writing this book, several of my friends jokingly called it the Nazi baby book, with one insisting it would make a great title. Nazi Babies – admittedly, that is a catchy title, but that’s not exactly what my book is about. SS babies would be slightly more on topic, but it would be more accurate to say that I wrote a book about SS men as husbands and fathers.

From 1931 to 1945, leaders of the SS, a paramilitary group under the Nazi party, sought to transform their organization into a racially-elite family community that would serve…

Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS

By Amy Carney,

What is this book about?

From 1931 to 1945, leaders of the SS, a paramilitary group under the Nazi party, sought to transform their organization into a racially-elite family community that would serve as the Third Reich's new aristocracy. They utilized the science of eugenics to convince SS men to marry suitable wives and have many children.

Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS by Amy Carney is the first work to significantly assess the role of SS men as husbands and fathers during the Third Reich. The family community, and the place of men in this community, started with one simple order issued by…


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