November 1918: The German Revolution

Although an understanding of the German revolutions of November 1918 is essential for understanding what led to WW II, the events of this period are only covered with short sketches in most history books. Those short sketches generally leave readers more confused than enlightened. Robert Gerwarth’s new book November 1918 provides a more detailed portrait of those events that is exhaustive without being exhausting for the reader. The result for the reader is much deeper understanding of these revolutions as well as the last years of WW I.

The book includes some wonderful photographs from the period as well as many quotes from diverse eye-witnesses to the events. Gerwarth is also kind enough to provide short reminders of who the show more characters are when they reappear in later chapters even if he introduced them in the beginning of the book. The book is also a real page-turner that I had a hard time putting down.

I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in the history of the world wars. show less

Mostly we think about how the Weimar Republic ended, but this book is about how it began and why leftists/democratic Germans thought there was some hope. Also a nice reminder that thinking about Germans as “rule-followers” is not all that helpful in explaining large historical events, since they did overthrow their governments and also engaged in plenty of extralegal violence.

A thorough, polished and persuasive review of the situation in Germany in 1918 and how the war was drawing to a close even if the allies didn't know it - Germany was on its knees and politically fragile and fragmented.