On the Road to Total War
Subtitle: The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification, 18611871 (Publications of the German Historical Institute)
Contributors: Stig Förster (Editor); Jorg Nagler (Editor)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; German Historical Institute
Published: February 28, 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 719
ISBN-13: 9780521560719
Subjects: American history: c 1800 to c 1900; c 1800 to c 1900; History: American; Military History - Modern; History - U.S.; United States - 19th Century; Germany; USA; United States - Civil War; World - General; History / General; United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865; Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871; Civil War, 1861-1865; History; Total war; United States
First sentence: The age of cabinet's war is behind us,-now we only have people's war. ...
Description: On the Road to Total War is a collection of essays, originally presented at a conference of the same title, that attempts to trace the roots and development of total industrialized warfare (which terrorizes citizens and soldiers alike). Scholars from the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Britain focus on both the social, political, economic, and cultural aspects and the impact on local society of the American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification.

Certain social forces, such as mass mobilization of people and resources and growing nationalism, led to this totalization of war in industrialized nations in the nineteenth century.