The 'Schlieffen Plan' never existed? Heresy? Well that is the belief of author, retired US Army officer and military scholar, Terence Zuber. Zuber received a PhD from a German university; is fluent in German. Hence his ability to research German archives, particularly the newly available documents from WWI.

The following quote is taken from the back of the dustjacket for this book....."The existence of the Schlieffen plan has been one of the basic assumptions of twentieth-century military history. It was the perfect example of the evils of German militarism: aggressive, mechanical, disdainful of politics and of public morality. The Great War began in August, 1914 allegedly because the Schlieffen plan forced the German government to transform a Balkan quarrel into a World War by attacking France. And, in the end, the Schlieffen plan failed at the battle of the Marne."

"Yet is has always been recognized that the Schlieffen plan included inconsistencies which have never been satisfactorily explained.. On the basis of newly discovered documents from German archives, Terence Zuber presents a radically different picture of German war planning between 1871 and 1914, and concludes that, in fact, there never really was a 'Schlieffen plan'."

Those two paragraphs give the basis of the work. In all the books I have read on the Great War (some 200+) the Schlieffen plan was always a given as to how Germany would fight the war. First defeat France in 6 weeks or so while defending in the east, then turn east to destroy the Russia steamroller. Due to its vastness, Russia was assumed to be slower to mobilize. No word from anyone to the contrary; until Terence Zuber.

I found his reasoning compelling and well thought out. He moves through the various stages of German war planning and gaming from 1871-1914. Zuber also reviews the relative position of German military strength to the other great powers of Europe. Overall I thought the book enlightening. I feel a comment must be made on the use of German words and phrases in the work. Some were defined, some not. Mr. Zuber understand German, I do not. Consequently, I had to Google words and phrases to get the meanings, write some of them down for reference as I continued reading. This dragged out the reading process and led to some frustration. However, that said I did find the book very interesting and recommend it. ( )