Prof. Ferguson fails to address the Treaties in force in 1914 where Great Britain was a signatory.In a rewrite of history Great Britain gets the blame and the fun loving Germans get a pass.
Remember:-Letter from Kaiser Wilhelm II to the Emperor of Austria in the early days of the war, in which the German Emperor wrote:
“My soul is torn asunder, but everything must be put to fire and blood. The throats of men and women, children and the aged must be cut, and not a tree or a house left standing.
With such methods of terror, which alone can strike so degenerate a people as the French, the war will finish before two months, while if I use humanitarian methods, it may prolong for years. Despite all my repugnance, I have had to choose the first system.”
The Germans learned from Shermans march to the sea.
Except, of course, that Sherman did no such thing.
The notion that Sherman invented total war is really, really silly.
Read up on the chevauchées of the 100 Years War. Not to mention the 30 Years' War and most other early modern wars.
Hindenberg was in DC observing the U.S. civil war. Certainly he learned what worked (e.g. Confederate raider ships and submarine) and what didn't (e.g. bayonet charges over open ground against automatic gatling guns).
Lincoln's aerial observation balloons fascinated him, and he returned to Germany to turn them from passive wind-swimmers into active war machines...later called dirigibles because of their framework.