The First World War: Complete History

The acclaimed British historian presents a magnificent, comprehensive single-volume work that covers all major fronts-domestic, diplomatic, and military-for what Publishers Weekly calls "a stunning achievement of research and storytelling".

It was supposed to be the war that would end all wars, and it commenced at 11:15 in the morning on June 28, 1914, in a remote part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire known as Sarajevo. It would officially end nearly five years later, but unofficially, its effects have never ceased: the terrors we continue to face today were born in the First World War.

The war left millions of civilians and soldiers either maimed or dead. It also introduced new technologies of destruction, such as tanks, airplanes, and submarines, as well as reliable rapid-fire machine guns and field artillery, poison gas, and chemical warfare. It brought about the use of U-boat packs and strategic bombing, unrestricted warfare on civilians, and mistreatment of prisoners. Most significantly, it brought about a change in our world. In the aftermath, empires crumbled, monarchies fell, entire populations lost their national identities, political systems shifted, and geographical boundaries were redrawn. Instabilities became the norm, animosities were entrenched, and the social order shifted dramatically. Manners, customs, codes of conduct, literature, the arts, education, and class distinctions all underwent profound changes. In all these ways, it can be argued that the twentieth century was born on the morning of June 28, 1914.

The New York Times Book Review states that this is "One of the first books that anyone should read in beginning to try to understand this war and this century."

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