It's the anti-Killer Angels. While the fictionalized account of the civil war endowed each character with a sort of super-sympathy (failures brought about by 'caring to deeply', etc.), all of the generals in Tuchman's non-fiction account of WW1 are clouded with fear, doubt, ego, caprice, and malice. The amount of research is incredible, but the read is often dry. I frequently caught my mind wandering and, after a while, I just let it.

I learned a bit more about battles, maneuvers, maps, and bureaucracies than I did about causes and implications, which would have been preferable. And was left feeling just sad. That was a whole lot of killing.