The Eastern Front 1914–1917
The classic study of the war between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia on the vast Eastern Front.
The Verdict
For the Western reader, the First World War's Eastern Front is often a blank between Tannenberg and the Russian Revolution; Norman Stone's classic study fills it in and reorders it. Drawing on Austrian and Russian records, he overturned the lazy picture of a purely static war, showing a front of movement, improvisation, and above all the economic and administrative strains that broke the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires from within. Dense and argumentative, it remains the book that put the Eastern Front back into the history of the war — and traced the road to 1917.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The forgotten Eastern Front of WWI
- How economic strain broke the empires
- A corrective to the static-war cliché
- The military road to the Russian Revolution
Look elsewhere if you want
- A narrative or introductory history
- The Western Front
- Accessibility over argument
Why We Rated It 4.2
Historical Context
The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (1975) is Norman Stone's study of the war between the Central Powers and Russia, drawing on Austro-Hungarian and Russian sources. It challenged the notion of a static conflict and stressed the economic and administrative failures that led to imperial collapse and revolution.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0140267259
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Why is The Eastern Front 1914-1917 important?
- It restored serious attention to the war's Eastern Front and argued that economic and administrative strain, more than static stalemate, drove the collapse of Russia and Austria-Hungary.
- Is it a good introduction to the Eastern Front?
- It is the standard scholarly account but is dense and argumentative; newcomers may prefer a general history first.