The First World War, Volume One: To Arms - Softcover

Strachan, Hew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199261911 ISBN 13: 9780199261918

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2003

Synopsis

This is the first truly definitive history of the First World War, the war that has done most to shape the twentieth century. The first generation of its historians had access to only a limited range of sources, and their focus was primarily on military events. More recent approaches have embraced cultural, diplomatic, economic, and social history. In Hew Strachan's authoritative and readable history these fresh perspectives are incorporated with the military and strategic narrative. The result is an account that breaks the bounds of national preoccupations to become both global and comparative.

To Arms, the first of three volumes in this magisterial study, examines not only the causes of the war and its opening clashes on land and sea, but also the ideas that underpinned it, and the motivations of the people who supported it. It provides full and pioneering accounts of the war's finances, of the war in Africa, and of the Central Powers' bid to widen the war outside Europe.

About this title

Review

Hew Strachan's The First World War Vol I: A Call to Arms counteracts the argument that of the two world wars in the 20th century, it is usually only the second that is thought of as "global"--spanning from the Pacific to Normandy as Hollywood continues to remind us, from the River Plate to Scapa Flow as naval buffs will recall. By contrast the First World War is often assumed to be a European war, literally bogged down in the Somme and the Dardanelles. But as Hew Strachan argues in this magisterial and wide-ranging book we would do better to use the German phrase, "weltkrieg" to describe the conflicts of 1914-18 as well. The Call to Arms is the latest in a long line of Strachan's distinguished and subtle works of military history at its best: his recent The Politics of the British Army is particularly good. A Call to Arms covers the war in every part of the globe--chapters on Turkey, Africa and Japan sit alongside sections devoted to the Western and Eastern fronts. And Strachan shows too that the war was global not just in its geography, but also in its outcome. The entente powers had better access to international finance than their foes; the war accelerated religious and tribal nationalism in the old colonial empires; industrial mobilisation fuelled the growth of heavy industry in 'undeveloped' parts of the world. This is a big book--1,000 pages plus, and it is only the first of three volumes. It needs time and attentive reading to absorb the range of its scholarship and the originality of its arguments. But anyone wanting to understand how and why the First World War, as one French writer put it in 1914, extended "to the whole universe" must read this book.--Miles Taylor

Review

... provides the most comprehensive and perceptive explanation yet advanced of the war's causes ... Its exhaustive detail and multilingual bibliography make it invaluable as a reference tool alone. The author's original and insightful arguments and comparisons make it the most important comprehensive history of the war that has appeared in nearly seventy years. (War in History)

One of the most impressive books of modern history in a generation. (Max Hastings, London Evening Standard)

... a tremendous achievement, combining narrative lucidity with original interpretation. (David Horspool, Daily Telegraph)

For a work of such detailed and monumental scholarship, the book also remains readable and accessible ... Strachan's awesome knowledge of his subject illuminates rather than swamps his narrative. (Sunday Times)

A towering achievement. (Richard Holmes, The Guardian)

Magnificent...sumptuous in the energy, clarity, and breadth of its scholarship ... a masterpiece. (Los Angeles Times)

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0199261911
• ISBN 13: 9780199261918
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1248