With our backs to the wall : victory and defeat in 1918 / David Stevenson.

Originally published: London: Allen Lane, 2011.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 629-658) and index.

Note on military and naval terminology -- Preface -- Prologue : deadlock, 1914-1917 -- On the defensive, March-July 1918 -- On the attack, July-November 1918 -- The new warfare : intelligence, technology, and logistics -- The human factor : manpower and morale -- Securing the seas : submarines and shipping -- The war economies : money, guns, and butter -- The home fronts : gender, class, and nation -- Armistice and after.

At the end of 1917 Britain and France faced a strategic nightmare. Their great offensives against Germany had been calamitous, leaving hundreds of thousands of young men dead and wounded for negligible territorial gains. Despite America's entry into the war the US army remained tiny, the Italian army had been routed, and Russia had dropped out of the conflict. The Central Powers now dominated Central and Eastern Europe, and Germany could move over forty divisions to the Western Front. Yet only one year later, on 11 November 1918, the fighting ended-- an arrangement between two weary opponents to suspend hostilities, granting the Allies victory. Stevenson's rich and compelling book retells the story of 1918, and with penetrating original research goes to the very roots of this instrumental turning point in modern history. - Publisher.