The most thorough, nuanced, and gripping analysis of life in the German army during this war.

Roger Chickering, Georgetown University

With this publication you get two books for the price of one... This book is not only a richly documented 'military history from below', but a convincing, finely argued history of mentalities of a region in a crucial period.

Alan Kramer, Trinity College, Dublin

Benjamin Ziemann's book, first published in 1997... can justifiably be seen as one of the most seminal works in this area. Indeed many, if not all, of his conclusions have stood the test of time (if ten years is an adequate test); and the on-going influence of his book can be seen in the numerous references to it in other scholarly works. As such, the decision to make it available to a wide audience of anglophone students and scholars is as welcome as it is inevitable.

Matthew Stibe, Sheffield Hallam University

[T]he book, meticulously researched and beautifully argued... is essentially reading for any scholar studying the army, the countryside, or Germany more broadly from 1914 to 1923.

Andrew Donson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, European History Quarterly

Ziemann's book offers a useful corrective to the legends surrounding the Fronterlebnis and the relations between soldiers and civilians that only began to emerge in the postwar years... The book marks an important advance in the growing body of work on the actual effects of World War I on German society.

Michael Nolan, Western Connecticut State University, Central European History