The First World War, now a century ago, still shapes the world in which we live, and its legacy lives on, in poetry, in prose, in collective memory and political culture. By the time the war ended in 1918, millions lay dead. Three major empires lay shattered by defeat, those of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans. A fourth, Russia, was in the throes of a revolution that helped define the rest of the twentieth century. The Oxford History of the First World War brings together in one volume many of the most distinguished historians of the conflict, in an account that matches the scale of the events. From its causes to its consequences, from the Western Front to the Eastern, from the strategy of the politicians to the tactics of the generals, they chart the course of the war and assess its profound political and human consequences. Chapters on economic mobilization, the impact on women, the role of propaganda, and the rise of socialism establish the wider context of the fighting at sea and in the air, and which ranged on land from the trenches of Flanders to the mountains of the Balkans and the deserts of the Middle East. First published for the 90th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, this highly illustrated revised edition contains significant new material to mark the 100th anniversary of the war's outbreak.
Readership: All those interested in the First World War and the history of the twentieth century
Hew Strachan: Introduction 1: Samuel R. Williamson, Jr: The Origins of the War 2: Holger Afflerbach: The Strategy of the Central Powers, 1914-1917 3: D. E. Showalter: Manoeuvre Warfare: The Eastern and Western Fronts, 1914-1915 4: David French: The Strategy of the Entente Powers, 1914-1917 5: R. J. Crampton: The Balkans, 1914-1918 6: Ulrich Trumpener: Turkey's War 7: David Killingray: The War in Africa 8: Paul G. Halpern: The War at Sea 9: B. J. C. McKercher: Economic Warfare 10: Hew Strachan: Economic Mobilization: Money, Munitions, Machines 11: Susan Grayzel: The Role of Women in War 12: J. A. Turner: The Challenge to Liberalism: The Politics of the Home Fronts 13: Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson: Eastern Front and Western Front, 1916-1917 14: Alexander Watson: Mutinies and Military Morale 15: David Stevenson: War Aims and Peace Negotiations 16: J. M. Winter: Propaganda and the Mobilization of Consent 17: John Horne: Socialism, Peace, and Revolution, 1917-1918 18: David Trask: The Entry of the USA into the War and its Effects 19: Holger H. Herwig: The German Victories, 1917-1918 20: John H. Morrow, Jr: The War in the Air 21: Tim Travers: The Allied Victories, 1918 22: Zara Steiner: The Peace Settlement 23: Robert Gerwarth: No End to War 24: Modris Eksteins: Memory and the Great War Further Reading Index
Sir Hew Strachan was born in Edinburgh in 1949, and was educated Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was Fellow between 1975 and 1992. He was Professor of Modern History at the University of Glasgow between 1992 and 2001, and founded its Scottish Centre for War Studies. In 2002 he became Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of All Souls College, and between 2003 and 2012 he directed the Oxford Programme on the Changing Character of War. The first volume of his planned trilogy on the First World War, To Arms, was published in 2001, and in 2003 he was the historian behind the 10-part series, The First World War, broadcast on Channel 4. He is a Commonwealth War Graves Commissioner and a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum, and serves on the British, Scottish, and French national committees advising on the centenary of the First World War.
Reviews for The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War: New Edition
This is as complete a snapshot of the war as you are likely to get. * Northern Echo * It is an essential introduction for all students of the First World War; the many photos included will also make it appeal to a general audience. * New Statesman *
