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World War I : a history
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1998
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Library Journal Review
Strachan (modern history, Univ. of Glasgow; The Politics of the British Army, Oxford Univ., 1997), most familiar from his work in the London Times, has collected a remarkable series of essays on a variety of issues raised by the Great War. Although the essays are often difficult to read without a deep understanding of the period, they illuminate complex and often misunderstood territory. Gail Braybon's take on women's roles enormously complicates the idea of women as a monolithic class. Strachan's economic approach to mobilization and B.J. McKercher's discussion of economic warfare considerably expand and complement the more familiar tactical and strategic summaries. Many of the essayists take care to place the greatest event of that generation in the context of future events, both in the tactical and in the larger social sphere. Highly recommended for most libraries.ÄEdwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
In 1900 the world was dominated by European powers; in 2000 a vaguely felt but undeniably real "globalization" will be the ruling paradigm. These Oxford volumes contain compact essays by eminent scholars analyzing the change. Besides global wars hot and cold, population explosion and urbanization impacted the entire century, as one of 27 articles in Twentieth Century underscores. Embracing nonpolitical topics in areas such as physics, modernism in art, and international economics, this work exposes the interested reader to developments that have affected most people. The talent to economically condense a subject as these authors do (each was allotted about 12 pages) does not grow on trees; some of them have written outstanding works recently, for example, physicist Steven Weinberg and U.S. historian James Patterson. This work, therefore, is a high-powered lecture series that if held at a university would cost big tuition bucks. Oxford's volume, less dear and just as rewarding, covers all regions of the globe. Arguably the most significant event of the century was World War I. Editor Strachan has commissioned 20 historians to summarize present thought about the July 1914 crisis, the military course of the war, the social and economic strains it exerted in all the belligerents, and its conclusion in revolutions and treaties. The war shattered illusions of every kind, starting with the belief that it would be brief; the accounts of why it was not are pithily rendered, reinforced by powerful illustrations of the western front's moonscapes, among other scenes of the war. Strachan's writers also assess the war outside Europe and the nascent nationalisms it unleashed. Readers will find this comprehensive work a captivating introduction to the Great War. --Gilbert Taylor
Kirkus Review
A solid yet concise illustrated history of the Great War by a team of international scholars. Oxford has set the standard in illustrated histories, and this one doesn--t disappoint. Though hardly revisionist, some of the essays do offer fresh insights into the conflict. David Killingray analyzes the war's impact on Africa, already balkanized by colonization from the great European powers. Though most Africans were spared the horrors of direct participation, African economies were still torn asunder, and hundreds of thousands died from famine. Editor Strachan (Modern History/Univ. of Glasgow, Scotland) argues in a later essay that, unlike other wars, WWI was financed almost entirely through credit, not taxes (this legacy wreaked havoc on postwar Weimar Germany). Another standout piece, by Gail Braybon, posits that historians have overemphasized WWI as the catalyst for moving women into the work force. In Europe, she claims, many of the women who worked during the war had already worked before 1914. What changed was their kind of service: non-farm women who were domestics or childcare workers traded in those low-wage jobs for industrial labor. In the anthology's final essay, Modris Eksteins provides a poignant (though overly short and superficial) exploration of the Great War and historical memory. What remained for Europe after ten million were dead and twice that number mutilated? Throughout the continent, some postwar artists and writers tried to give voice to the suffering they had seen, while others abided by an unwritten code of silence. In more recent decades, the war has been washed with a kind of romanticism, as hordes of tourists descend on the now-parklike battlefields of the Somme and Verdun. Strachan has chosen wisely, and offers a well-conceived (if brief) introduction. In all, a worthwhile contribution to WWI literature. (16 pages color, 140 b&w illustrations, 7 maps, not seen) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Summary
The First World War has shaped the history of the twentieth century. It was the first conflict in which aeroplanes, submarines, and tanks played a significant role, the first in which casualties on the battlefield outnumbered those from disease. It precipitated the collapse of the empires of Austria-Hungary and Turkey, and it promoted revolution in that of Russia. The USA's entry into the war and the part it played in the peace settlement signalled the arrival on the world stage of a new great power. The victors at Versailles took nationalism as one of their guiding principles; they also aimed at instituting their vision of liberalism and even democracy; the political consequences are still being played out. In this extensively illustrated book, an international team of experts explores the war in all its different aspects. 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, the course of the war is charted and its political and human consequences assessed. Chapters on economic mobilization, the impact on women, the role of propaganda, and the rise of socialism establish the wider social context of fighting which took place at sea and in the air and which ranged on land from the Flanders trenches to the Balkan mountains and the deserts of the Middle East. While the war was fought on many fronts and in many different ways, the unifying experience of participants was that of the trenches. The legacy of `the war to end wars' -- in poetry and prose, in collective memory and political culture -- is with us still, eighty years after that first Armistice Day.
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