A Mad Catastrophe

The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire

By: Geoffrey Wawro

Narrated by: Geoffrey Wawro

The Austro-Hungarian army that marched east and south to confront the Russians and Serbs in the opening campaigns of World War I had a glorious past but a pitiful present. Speaking a mystifying array of languages and lugging outdated weapons, the Austrian troops were hopelessly unprepared for the industrialized warfare that would shortly consume Europe. As prizewinning historian Geoffrey Wawro explains in A Mad Catastrophe, the doomed Austrian conscripts were an unfortunate microcosm of the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself - both equally ripe for destruction.

After the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, Germany goaded the Empire into a war with Russia and Serbia. With the Germans massing their forces in the west to engage the French and the British, everything - the course of the war and the fate of empires and alliances from Constantinople to London - hinged on the Habsburgs’ ability to crush Serbia and keep the Russians at bay. However, Austria-Hungary had been rotting from within for years, hollowed out by repression, cynicism, and corruption at the highest levels. Commanded by a dying emperor, Franz Joseph I, and a querulous celebrity general, Conrad von Hötzendorf, the Austro-Hungarians managed to bungle everything: their ultimatum to the Serbs, their declarations of war, their mobilization, and the pivotal battles in Galicia and Serbia. By the end of 1914, the Habsburg army lay in ruins and the outcome of the war seemed all but decided.

Drawing on deep archival research, Wawro charts the decline of the Empire before the war and reconstructs the great battles in the east and the Balkans in thrilling and tragic detail. A Mad Catastrophe is a riveting account of a neglected face of World War I, revealing how a once-mighty empire collapsed in the trenches of Serbia and the Eastern Front, changing the course of European history.

©2014 Geoffrey Wawro (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Osterreich? Osterwrong!

Ok, so that was a cheesy headline, but that's all I could think of!

This is a really fascinating book delving into the final death knell of the Austrian Empire, with an emphasis on its disastrous performance in the first 1-2 years of The Great War. The author is the narrator, so you can clearly hear his own incredulity and disgust with just how unprepared this formerly great empire was for the war, the complete disregard for its citizens in pursing this war, and the separation from reality its military and political leaders had from the disaster that was unfolding on the ground. This is a kind of "Guns of August" of the Austrian front, detailing just how wrong everything was going for the Austrians in the first part of the war, and how this was a result of bad policy and eventually foretold the destruction of this empire. It's mind boggling, with the benefit of hindsight, at just how pathetic the Austrians were: under-powered and numerically less artillery, officers not speaking the same language as their men, Napoleonic war techniques of charging headlong into machine guns and artillery, terrible troop morale and a high command that could not make up their mind about what to do, except to "stress the offensive". Given the numbers of men involved, it's horrible, sad stuff.

My only (minor) quibbles is that sometimes the author will repeat himself, in particular when assailing the Austrian Chief of Staff, Conrad, but Conrad really is just ridiculous and horrible, so I can accept that. I would have loved to hear a bit more about the decay of the Empire prior to the war. It seems that when they lose the German confederation in the Austrian Prussian War, that is when they go from a German-centric Empire with other non-German holdings to being a minority in their own empire. This to me is really the beginning of the end.

Austrian Madness revealed

It is indeed fascinating to read/listen to the Austrian Empires madness in even thinking of war,when they were so unprepared.Vanity of vanities,vanity of vanities personified.If you are a history buff,listen to this.

A masterful look at the origins of World War I

An excellent analysis of the origins of World War I and Austria's shockingly incompetent conduct of the war in the early years. Two minus stars for the author's reading of his own work, he has passion but lacks the polish of a professional narrator.

Great story teller

Loved it and had a hard time putting it down. Thank you so much J.W.

Excellent

Outstanding book. Information that has not been available in English. I have learned a lot. Coherent, Excellent writing and narration. Highly recommended

A tale of folly that carries its self to the end.

Where does A Mad Catastrophe rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This work goes right along side some of Barbra Tuchman's works. It maintains a good focus on its subject and cites sources throughout, nothing better than a bit of the Polybian ethic in a history.I rank it among the better histories and I am glad to have stumbled upon this detailed work.

What other book might you compare A Mad Catastrophe to and why?

The March of Folly by Barbra W. Tuchman, but with a less scattered gaze.

What about Geoffrey Wawro’s performance did you like?

He is obviously passionate about his work and is given to incline and decline his tone for emphasis at the points which he sees as critical to the narrative. As the author he has good insight into when this should be done. It is like and extended book TV reading. I'm all for authors reading their own work, Ray Bradbury did it with Fahrenheit 451 if you'd like more this ilk.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The Slavs struggle for independence.

Good Looking at the Austrian side of WW1

Author strives to write “The Guns of August” for the Eastern Front, and does a fairly good job of it. It can be difficult to follow all the geographic details without a map in front of you, but that is just the nature of books like this. Overall a very good detailed look at the Austria side of WW1.

Great content, mediocre speaker.

Still worth your time if you wish to learn more about the Austrian fronts of the Great War. Damn Hungary

Good story, but mediocre narrator.

I greatly enjoyed the book, but a large portion of the time the narrator was speaking like an asthmatic after a marathon. To the narrator's credit, he did have some quite good sections.

Detailed, Emphatic, Redundant

In A Mad Catastrophe the author offers episodes and examples of Imperial-sized ineptitude. The message crystalizes early on, the indictment of Austria/Hungary's rot and hubris evident. The narrative of blame does not reach the heart, however, and as read by the author, serves merely to boggle the mind. With this approach, the one-pointed message about high-level stupidity in a splintering, decaying empire pounded out over and over, the effect is somewhat boring and numbing.