Originally published on April 28, 2021 (Episode 204)
Introduction
By August of 1916, the combatants in the Great War had been locked in struggle for two years. While the German Empire had enjoyed astonishing and unexpected success on the Eastern Front, on the Western Front things were very different. The German plan to bleed the French Army dry at Verdun had begun in February, and had months of further futility and agony to go. The Allied attempt to break the German lines along the River Somme had begun on July 1, and would go on to November, with increasingly marginal and catastrophic results.
If ever there was a time for both sides to consider a peace settlement, the autumn of 1916 was it. As Philip Zelikow argues in his new book The Road Less Traveled: The Secret Battle to End the Great War, 1916-1917, the possibility of peace was much more substantial than has been generally realized. The failure to achieve it would have consequences that are almost too many to categorize, and provides us today with profound lessons.
About the Guest
Philip Zelikow is the Botha-Chan Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and the White Burkett Miller Emeritus Professor of History and the J. Wilson Newman Emeritus Professor of Governance at the University of Virginia. A past director of the Miller Center at UVA, he also served as Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission. His scholarship and public service span history, law, and national security.
For Further Investigation
Philip Zelikow, The Road Less Traveled: The Secret Battle to End the Great War, 1916-1917
Margaret MacMillan, The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914
David Stevenson, Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy
Listen & Discuss
Could the First World War have ended in 1916—and what would our world look like if it had? Share your reflections in the comments, and consider forwarding this episode to a friend who teaches or studies the history of diplomacy.
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