Victory Must Be Ours: Germany in the Great War, 1914-1918

In his stark, well-documented study of the hardships suffered by German civilians during WWI and how Germany's defeat influenced much of the world's history over the next three decades, Moyer, a Connecticut-based historical researcher, chronicles the slackening of morale as campaign after campaign failed to produce victory. He shows that food shortages became so acute that starvation was a real threat, describing, for instance, the catastrophic failure of the potato harvest in 1917 and the development of the black market. Moyer takes a close look at the 1919 Versailles Treaty, which Germany was forced to sign on dictated terms, and explains why it was regarded as ``an atrocious injustice'' by the Germans. He depicts the subsequent hyperinflation, unemployment and incipient civil war that plagued the country and provided a context for the advent of Adolf Hitler. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)