The First World War - Hardcover

Strachan, Sir Hew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743239598 ISBN 13: 9780743239592

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

A significant addition to the literature on World War I, which takes a global view of what has frequently been misperceived as a prolonged skirmish on the Western Front. Exploring such theatres as the Balkans, Africa and the Ottoman Empire, this single-volume work assesses Britain's participation in the light of what became a struggle for the defence of liberalism, and shows how the war shaped the "short" 20th century that followed it. Published to tie in with a television series, "The First World War" accompanies 10 one-hour episodes to be shown on Channel 4 during the autumn of 2003.

About this title

About the Author

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.

From the Inside Flap

The popular view of the First World War is dominated by cliché. Young British soldiers, many of them budding poets, were led to early and ghastly deaths in muddy wastes by incompetent generals for reasons that were seemingly futile. And although clichés are not necessarily lies, they are at best a selective view of the truth.

Building on his ongoing research for his mammoth three-volume history of the war, Hew Strachan now presents a stunning new account of the hostilities which offers many new interpretations of and insights into one of the defining events of the twentieth century. This one-volume history is not just a riveting digest for the general reader of his other writing, it also provides the narrative structure and direction of the accompanying ten-part Channel 4 series. And, for the first time, it offers a truly global vision of a conflict which is often misconceived as a prolonged skirmish on the Western Front.

Strachan argues convincingly that the war had become a 'world war' long before the involvement of the United States and the Russian Revolution of 1917. Far from being a 'European civil war', the conflict involved the colonial territories of European powers, and touched areas as far-flung as the Balkans, Africa and the Ottoman Empire. And it was the existence of these territories that helped explain why the war did not seem futile at the time: for Britain and France, it quickly became a struggle for the defence of liberalism.

Accessible, compelling and utterly convincing, and featuring a wealth of photographs many of which have never previously been published, this is modern history writing at its finest.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743239598
• ISBN 13: 9780743239592
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368