The First World War: A Complete History

The acclaimed British historian offers a majestic, single-volume work incorporating all major fronts-domestic, diplomatic, military-for "a stunning achievement of research and storytelling" (Publishers Weekly) It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would end officially almost five years later. Unofficially, it has never ended: the horrors we live with today were born in the First World War. It left millions-civilians and soldiers-maimed or dead. And it left us with new technologies of death: tanks, planes, and submarines; reliable rapid-fire machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare. It introduced us to U-boat packs and strategic bombing, to unrestricted war on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners. Most of all, it changed our world. In its wake, empires toppled, monarchies fell, whole populations lost their national identities as political systems, and geographic boundaries were realigned. Instabilities were institutionalized, enmities enshrined. And the social order shifted seismically. Manners, mores, codes of behavior; literature and the arts; education and class distinctions-all underwent a vast sea change. And in all these ways, the twentieth century can be said to have been born on the morning of June 28, 1914. "One of the first books that anyone should read in beginning to try to understand this war and this century." -The New York Times Book Review(cover) Sir Martin Gilbertwas knighted in 1995 "for services to British history and international relations." The author of an eight-volume biography of Winston Churchill, among his other books areChurchill: A Life, The First World War, The Second World War, and most recentlyThe Somme. He lives in London, England. It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would end officially almost five years later. Unofficially, it has never ended: The horrors we live with today were born in the First World War. It left millionscivilians and soldiersmaimed or dead. And it left us with new technologies of death: tanks, planes, and submarines; reliable rapid-fire machine guns; and field artillery, poison gas, and chemical warfare. It introduced us to U-boat packs and strategic bombing, to unrestricted war on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners. Most of all, it changed our world. In its wake, empires toppled, monarchies fell, whole populations lost their national identities as political systems and geographic boundaries realigned. Instabilities were institutionalized, enmities enshrined. Manners, mores, codes of behavior; literature and the arts; education and class distinctionsall underwent a vast sea change. In all these ways, the twentieth century can be said to have been born on the morning of June 28, 1914. "One of the first books that anyone should read in beginning to try to understand this war and this century."The New York Times Book Review "For the general reader who wants to know the both what happened (on the field and off) and how it felt for the men who did the fighting, this is the best single-volume history of the First World War that has yet been written."Newsday "Gilbert covers all the war's multiple fronts and follows the combat from beginning to end, and he does so in a way that brings distant events to painful immediacy. His work helps keep the memory of fourteen million victims alive."The Philadelphia Inquirer "Among the thousands of accounts of the conflict, Gilbert's is remarkable, even stunning."The Boston Globe