Overview

A brilliant and penetrating new history of the First World War by one of the world's foremost experts on the conflict. Reissued with a new introduction from the author. The popular view of the First World War is dominated by cliché: young British soldiers, many of them budding poets, led to early and ghastly deaths in muddy wastes by incompetent generals for reasons that were seemingly futile. As this magisterial new one volume history of the war illustrates, however, the cliché is only part of the truth. Hew Strachan argues that the war had become a ‘world war’ long before the involvement of the United States, and that for those liberal countries struggling to defend their freedoms, the war was far from futile. Accessible, compelling and utterly convincing, this is modern history writing at its finest. Accessible, compelling and utterly convincing, this is modern history writing at its finest.

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9781471134265

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Reviews

‘Quite simply the best short history of the war in print . . . Strachan has emerged as the master of us all who write of war in English’  -- Dennis Showalter ‘This is a book to buy if you aren’t lucky enough to be given it’ -- Christopher Hudson * Daily Mail Books of the Year * ‘I have seldom chanced upon a short book which so brilliantly brings to life and explains an immensely complex historical phenomenon’  -- Paul Johnson * Spectator * ‘Every chapter contains revelations . . . The level of erudition and insight brought to bear have made the familiar strange and stimulating. The way in which Strachan brings together the detail of events and the big picture to build a compelling narrative is masterly. It really is a massive achievement’  -- Stephen Bungay

‘This is a book to buy if you aren’t lucky enough to be given it’ -- Christopher Hudson * Daily Mail Books of the Year * ‘I have seldom chanced upon a short book which so brilliantly brings to life and explains an immensely complex historical phenomenon’  -- Paul Johnson * Spectator * ‘Every chapter contains revelations . . . The level of erudition and insight brought to bear have made the familiar strange and stimulating. The way in which Strachan brings together the detail of events and the big picture to build a compelling narrative is masterly. It really is a massive achievement’  -- Stephen Bungay

Author Information

Professor Hew Strachan is the Chichele Professor of the History of War at Oxford University, and the author of several highly acclaimed books on military history.

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