A comprehensive survey of one of the lesser known charnal houses of the Great War. If you're wondering how the Italian army could fight a dozen battles on essentially the same field of action for so little result, this work will provide you with an answer. As for the complaints in some quarters that Schindler is too much of an enthusiast for the Austro-Hungarian empire and too critical of Italiam arms, well, there is much to be critical about.

As for my criticisms of the book, I wouldn't have minded a bit more supporting reference apparatus and maps, but that probably would have resulted in a truly unwieldy work. This is partly made up for by a good bibliographic essay.

There are also a few times when I felt that Schindler was just edging into the tone of "patriotic gore," and was wondering whether this had anything to do with his advertised association with the American Enterprise Institute; though it's probably simply my problem with that organization and its stand on assorted issues. This is particularly since Schindler is now apparently part of the staff of the Naval War College.

Finally, I would have liked to have seen a little tactical analysis of just how the Italians could almost routinely get routed by Austrian counter-attacks. It's implied that the problems stemmed from bad doctrine and suspect unit coherence & motivation, but a formal examination of that point would have been very valuable. ( )