Totally At War: Ludendorff's Total War Paperback – October 15, 2025

Erich Ludendorff was a prominent German general and later a nationalist politician, who rose through the ranks of the Imperial German Army. By 1916 he had effectively become Germany’s military leader in a de facto dictatorship alongside Hindenburg, and directed Germany’s war strategy, logistics, and even domestic policy during the final years of the war. After Germany’s defeat in 1918, he resigned and became a vocal proponent of the “stab-in-the-back” myth.In 1935, he presented an extreme and uncompromising vision of modern warfare in Der totale Krieg.Drawing on his First World War experience, he argued that industrial society had transformed conflict into a struggle demanding the total mobilization of a nation’s people, economy, and spirit. Politics, he insisted, must serve the war effort entirely.The book shocked and divided its readers. Nationalists praised its call for unity and discipline, while critics condemned its rejection of democratic restraint and its blueprint for a militarized state.In retrospect, historians see Der totale Krieg as both prophetic and chilling: it foreshadowed the full-scale mobilizations and moral collapses of the Second World War that followed soon after.Today, it stands as a warning, and an enduring study of how the pursuit of “total war” can consume societies, blur the line between soldier and civilian, and transform survival itself into an ideology of total destruction.Contents: ForewordThe Nature of Total WarSpiritual Cohesion of the People, The Foundation of Total WarThe Economy and Total WarStrength and Substance of the Armed ForcesComponents of the Armed Forces and Their DeploymentConducting Total WarThe Commander-in-ChiefReaction to Ludendorff’s Total War Read more