The Killing Season

“A gripping literary and historical account, centered on the first four months of fluid movement surrounding the 1914 first battle of Ypres … revisionist and original military history at its finest.”—Victor Davis Hanson, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Everything“Robert Cowley’s The Killing Season is a thrilling and compellingly readable account of the Battle of Ypres in October 1914, a pivotal moment which ended the war of movement and ushered in the four years of trench warfare which would cost millions of lives on both sides… . a magnificent, monumental achievement.”—Michael Korda, author of Muse of Fire“Among military historians, nobody is better than Robert Cowley at breathing new life into long dead battles, demonstrating their true significance by presenting us with a host of key but never fully-considered factors. The Killing Season, the product of three decades of research, is a triumph of retrospection and reconsideration; but so well-written it’s easy to forget how much new ground is being broken. My advice is simple: Read This Book.”—Robert L. O’Connell, author of Revolutionary“The Killing Season has all the elements of an epic. A bloody, consequential battle, a cast of heroic characters, taut writing, superb research, and an unputdownable story, all make Cowley’s a great book. It will stand as a classic of military history.”—Barry S. Strauss, author of The War that Made the Roman Empire“The Killing Season crackles with excitement. With a novelist’s eye for drama and a historian’s mastery of detail, Cowley delivers a powerfully immersive experience for the reader, viscerally conveying the sheer folly of a conflict that decimated Europe… . A deeply moving book that brings back one of the most important autumns of the twentieth century.”—Ted Widmer, author of Lincoln on the Verge“This is a masterful and heartbreaking book. If you want to know how modern warfare began, The Killing Season is for you.”—Geoffrey C. Ward, co-author of The Civil War, The War, and Vietnam“A gripping narrative about the autumn of 1914, focusing on World War I’s pivotal Battle of Ypres and its profound impact … enhanced by compelling accounts of the key actions and figures … [Cowley’s] ability to blend historical insight and vivid storytelling makes this a valuable read… . Clear and intelligently written; enjoyable for both the average history buff and researchers.”—Library Journal, starred review

Robert Cowley is an authority on American and European military history whose writing spans the Civil War to World War II. He has held several senior positions in book and magazine publishing and is the founding editor of the award-winning MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. Cowley has also written and edited three collections of essays in counterfactual history known as What If?, and he is the author of the forthcoming book The Killing Season, a history of the first Battle of Ypres and the beginning of World War I. As part of his research, he drove and walked the entire length of the Western Front. He lives in Newport, Rhode Island.