military

Few scholars today can match Hew Strachan's grasp of World War One's history. This is an excellent work that describes how global the war truly was and how it impacted its own generation as well as the next century to come. Anyone interested in World War One should consider reading this work.

The book covers many topics and it is somewhat interesting to see the placement of relatively obscure theatres, Africa, the high seas, and the middle east placed early in the book. Most other works relegate these areas to one combined chapter or footnotes to a larger picture. But these show how the war affected the entire world and rightly deserve their own chapters.

What is most appealing about this book is how it refuses to lay total blame on Germany for the war. Ever since Versailles, France, Britain, and to a lesser extent, the United States, have sought to blame Germany for everything the war caused. In this respect, Strachan follows Holger Herwig's argument on his work covering Germany and Austria-Hungary's relationship. Each power went to war with specific aims and all were legitimate in their own opinions. By losing, Germany got the short end of the stick. Of course Germany's harsh treaties with Russia and Romania were prophetic in that they were a preview of things to come at Versailles.

Strachan argues the Central Powers stood little chance of outright military victory (mainly because Germany had no serious allies to support them) and thus sought to weaken the Entente in any way possible. Most belligerents assumed there would be a 1919 campaign and were somewhat surprised when the Central Powers ultimately imploded in October and November 1918.

The book is well-written and very readable. It has many photographs but no maps. Strachan is attempting a three volume project on the war and this book is an overview. Even he agrees the project may be ambitious as the first volume took fifteen years to complete. But he makes up for it with this one-volume book that is among the most comprehensive on the market today.

Hew Strachan is working on what will probably be the definitive, 3 volume history of WWI, with the first volume, To Arms already out. This work, I'm assuming, is a summary, a pocket edition, of what will be fleshed out in those 3 volumes, and as such, it is excellent. I agree with the points made by other reviewers, so I won't repeat them here, but one comment -- while a reviewer felt the Eastern Front was slighted somewhat, there is still more in this work than you will usually find in a one volume history, and the role of Bulgaria in the final defeat of the Central Powers was, to me, well done and a new insight for me.

I fully agree this is a 5 star volume, and would further encourage anyone to look carefully at buying all 3 volumes when they are available if your budget will allow.

This new account may not uncover any new scholarship but its picture packed pages ensure that it is a worthwhile read. Nearly half the book has pictures in it and there is a wonderful inset of color photos. The color photos show the unique international character of the allied armies, from Senegalese French troops to Vietnamese and Sikhs. The rest of the text is a plodding, sometimes enjoyable read about the first world war and its important events. From Jutland to Serbia to the Fall of Russia, the French mutinies and Gallipoli the war is covered. There is not quite enough coverage of the Turkish-Russian theatre or of the Armenian genocide but this is to be expected. There is good coverage of the many weapons used, including the German rail guns, the 250mm long guns. Scant coverage is given to German surface raiders or Von Spee but 'Castles of Steel' is the superior choice for the naval war anyway. In final summation this is a good read and the pictures are excellent.

Seth J. Frantzman