The First World War – T.L.L.BOOK

The First World War: A Very Short Introduction

Michael Howard 2002

E-Book: 161 English Pages

Publisher: OUP

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By the time the First World War ended in 1918, eight million people had died in what had been perhaps the most apocalyptic episode the world had known.

This Very Short Introduction provides a concise and insightful history of the Great War–from the state of Europe in 1914, to the role of the US, the collapse of Russia, and the eventual surrender of the Central Powers. Examining how and why the war was fought, as well as the historical controversies that still surround the war, Michael Howard also looks at how peace was ultimately made, and describes the potent legacy of resentment left to Germany.

Review

A distinguished British historian presents the central events of World War I for readers who are curious but unknowledgeable about the conflict. It is comparable in style to the author’s recent The Invention of Peace (2001). Succinctly expressive, Howard’s style concentrates narrative and interpretation within a few sentences, but a deep historical controversy often lurks behind his concision, such as who was responsible for igniting the war. For those readers who are incredulous that a global conflagration could erupt from an assassination, Howard summarizes how the alliance systems came about, the fears of the nations that contracted them, and the special resentments of a German monarch who embodied “archaic militarism, vaulting ambition, and neurotic insecurity.” Just as perplexing, perhaps, is the continuance for four years of trench warfare; once again, Howard compactly explains the slight alterations in tactics that generals believed would achieve a breakthrough, but produced instead the bloodbaths that by 1917-18 broke armies and entire regimes. Also touching on the war’s course in Italy and Eastern Europe, Howard elegantly applies his erudition and judgment to this concise introduction.

— Gilbert Taylor

`Review from previous edition Review from previous edition succinct, comprehensive and beautifully written. Indeed reading it is an experience comparable to scanning the clues of a well-composed crossword puzzle. Every allusion is eventually supplied with an answer, and the finished product defies the puzzler’s disbelief that the intricacies can be brought to a convincing conclusion. . . . Michael Howard is the master of the short book’

—TLS

`Howard expertly and succintly summarizes the Great War for the layperson… volume is an excellent way to get a grounding in this momentous subject’

—Forbes Global 21/03/03

`an enlightened idea to produce a very short account of the great war – a page per month – . . . . But if, in 2014, bright schoolchildren, their brains putified by GCSE, get around to asking what the first world war was about, Howard’s book will be very valuable.’

—The Times, Culture

`Professor Sir Michael Howard, . . ., is our best living military historian, and perhaps also strategic thinker. His new work is a masterly introduction to the Great War, desgined for those with no previous knowldge of the subject. . . . Any new student who reads Michael Howard should go on to address the first volume of Hew Strachan’s huge new work on the same theme. There is great wisdom in both books, and wisdom on this subject is in short supply.’

—Sunday Telegraph