We interviewed Holger Afflerbach, author of ‘On A Knife Edge’. In this major new account of German wartime politics and strategy he argues that the outcome of the war was actually in the balance until relatively late in the war. Using new evidence from diaries, letters and memoirs, he uncovers the struggles in wartime Germany between supporters of peace and hardliners who wanted to fight to the finish. He suggests that Germany was not nearly as committed to all-out conquest as previous accounts argue. Numerous German peace advances could have offered the opportunity to end the war before it dragged Europe into the abyss.
www.cambridge.org/OnAKnifeEdge
0:00 Start
0:12 Introduction
2:01 What is ‘On A Knife Edge’ about?
9:14 What makes this book different from other books about military history?
12:06 The book draws on first-hand accounts of the war, what is it that drew you, personally, to look into the First World War?
14:45 Who is ‘On A Knife Edge’ for?