All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) is one of the most surprising phenomena in the history of literature. Its commercial success was unparalleled….

But the novel was not simply a best-seller. It also became a focus of intellectual and, indeed, of political life. Immediately upon its appearance, it provided a casus belli for the battle, in the Germany of 1929, between militarists and pacifists, right wing and left. (p. 101)

[The] reasons for the success of All Quiet are likely to be somewhat more complex than is commonly supposed.

On the one hand, timing is obviously of significance. The interval of ten years since the war was short enough for the memories of participants not to have faded, but long enough for the ex-servicemen to have recovered from their immediate post-war desire to forget. At the same time, the developing political situation at the end of...