The First World War - by John Keegan (Paperback)

About the Book

In the definitive account of the Great War, Keegan sheds fascinating light on weaponry and technology; shows the doomed negotiations between the monarchs and ministers of 1914; and takes readers into the verminous trenches of the Western front. of photos.

Book Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The definitive account of the Great War from one of our most eminent military historians. "Elegantly written, clear, detailed, and omniscient.... Keegan is...perhaps the best military historian of our day." --The New York Times Book Review

The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the twentieth century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times--modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society--and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment.

The First World War probes the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict and takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations among Europe's crowned heads (all of them related to one another by blood) and ministers, and their doomed efforts to defuse the crisis. Keegan reveals how, by an astonishing failure of diplomacy and communication, a bilateral dispute grew to engulf an entire continent.

But the heart of Keegan's superb narrative is, of course, his analysis of the military conflict. With unequalled authority and insight, he recreates the nightmarish engagements whose names have become legend--Verdun, the Somme and Gallipoli among them--and sheds new light on the strategies and tactics employed, particularly the contributions of geography and technology. No less central to Keegan's account is the human aspect. He acquaints us with the thoughts of the intriguing personalities who oversaw the tragically unnecessary catastrophe--from heads of state like Russia's hapless tsar, Nicholas II, to renowned warmakers such as Haig, Hindenburg and Joffre. But Keegan reserves his most affecting personal sympathy for those whose individual efforts history has not recorded--"the anonymous millions, indistinguishably drab, undifferentially deprived of any scrap of the glories that by tradition made the life of the man-at-arms tolerable."

By the end of the war, three great empires--the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian and the Ottoman--had collapsed. But as Keegan shows, the devastation ex-tended over the entirety of Europe, and still profoundly informs the politics and culture of the continent today. His brilliant, panoramic account of this vast and terrible conflict is destined to take its place among the classics of world history.

Review Quotes

"Eloquent.... Mr. Keegan captures the anamolous, even surreal quality of the war." --The New York Times

"The best one-volume account there is." --Civilization

"Elegantly written, clear, detailed, and omniscient.... Keegan is ...perhaps the best military historian of our day." --The New York Times Book Review

"Undoubtedly the world's most accessible and popular military historian." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Magisterial.... A miracle of concision." --The Weekly Standard

"An epic tale.... Makes us keenly aware of how battles are fought, won, and lost." --Fortune

About the Author

JOHN KEEGAN was for many years senior lecturer in military history at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and has been a fellow at Princeton University and a visiting professor of history at Vassar College. He is the author of twenty books, including the acclaimed The Face of Battle and The Second World War. He lived in Wiltshire, England until his death in 2012.