Violence and the German Soldier is an important, salutary, and perceptive study that complicates our understanding of the German veteran's responses to the carnage of war ... the book is essential reading for all serious students of the effects of violence on the veterans of the First World War.

Michigan War Studies Review

Reflecting a depth of archival and historiographical knowledge acquired through over two decades of study on the topic, Ziemann's book is a welcome addition to this increasingly rich literature, chiefly for the methodological and historiographical agenda it sets.

H-War

It is important. It is provocative. It is densely argued. It is well organised, with each of its ten chapters featuring an introduction as well as a conclusion.

War in History

An impressive example of how to write modern military history. [Ziemann's] argumentation is clear and concise, and at the same time he provides a vivid description of the manifold experiences of violence during the First World War in numerous biographical case studies.

German Historical Institute London Bulletin

A stimulating discussion ... The indirect connections [of the Great War] with a far more violent war twenty years later remain a question on which this thoughtful book invites reflection.

The American Historical Review

Ziemann's outstanding book is highly original in its nuanced and differentiated analysis of the behaviour of German troops during the First World War - why they were prepared to kill, but also how war weariness led to mass desertion and rejection of violence. Simple generalisations will not surive a reading of this brilliant work.

Sir Ian Kershaw, Emeritus Professor of Modern History, University of Sheffield, UK