The First World War: A Complete History

by Martin Gilbert

Book Overview

"All the ways Mr. Gilbert's The First World War brings the conflict home to people at the end of the twentieth century render it one of the first books that anyone should read in beginning to try to understand this war and this century".--John Milton Cooper, Jr., The New York Times Book Review. 80 photos. 31 maps.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080501540X
• ISBN13: 9780805015409
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 615 Pages
• Weight: 2.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 7.1" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Very pleased

Book arrived as ordered very pleased with it and all others I have got!!

A Compelling Read

I enjoyed reading it immensely. Somewhere between Keegan's sometimes overwhelming numbers and Strachan's daunting compendium lies this humanizing account of the Great War. I'm not enough of a historian to tell you what may or may not be wrong with this book, but I am enough of a reader to say Gilbert has written an informative and engaging page turner. Well done.

A Superb Overview of the "War to end all Wars"!

Sir Martin Gilbert, a British historian who rose to fame and fortune as the official biographer of Winston Churchill, outdoes himself with "The First World War: A Complete History". Although some posters on this board have complained that Gilbert hasn't really written a "complete" history of that great conflict, I believe that Gilbert's meaning needs to be put into perspective. It IS true that Gilbert has not written an in-depth, "complete" MILITARY history of the war. Those who are seeking an in-depth analysis of the battles, strategies and tactics used by First World War commanders should look to other works, such as those of John Keegan, for fuller insights. However, Gilbert does offer a "complete" view of the war in ALL of its terrible aspects, not only the military scene, but also how the war changed the politics, national boundaries, culture and society, technology, and economies of the nations involved in the struggle. For a general reader or history buff who hasn't read much about the First World War, then Gilbert's book is simply the best that's been done. As Gilbert points out, the First World War had a greater impact on Europe and the world than the Second World War in many ways. So many of our current methods and machines of warfare - submarines, fighter planes, tanks, flamethrowers, poison gas and the rapid-fire machine gun - were all invented during the war. The First World War also witnessed warfare against innocent civilians on a then-unimagined scale. The Germans sank passenger ships (such as the Lusitania) with submarines - killing innocent men, women and children with little or no warning. Both sides carried out aerial bombardment of cities and towns, with little or no regard to the safety of the civilians below. Where this book especially shines is in Gilbert's ability to show the tremendous suffering of the soldiers in the trenches, men who often lived like (and with) rats in miserable manmade caves while under constant enemy bombardment and machine-gun (and poison gas) fire. Gilbert really brings home the senseless slaughter (there is no other way to describe it) of an entire generation of young European men. And, of course, the war changed Europe forever. Three great royal families were overthrown - the Romanovs in Russia, which led to the Communist takeover and the rise of the Soviet Union, with all that foretold for future world events (such as the Cold War between the Soviets and the USA); the arrogant Hohenzollern family in Germany, which led to chaos in the German government that didn't truly end until a hate-filled Austrian who had fought as a corporal in the German Army - Adolf Hitler - became dictator in 1932; and the Hapsburg family in Austria, who had been players in European politics since the Middle Ages, but whose empire broke up after the war, creating the Eastern European nations we have today. Franklin D. Roosevelt gained invaluable military and government experience during the First World War as Assistant

Masterful Overview Of World War One!

No one has been more acclaimed or prolific in writing about the total scope of twentieth century history than British author and historian Sir Martin Gilbert, who sometimes seems to represent a kind of one-man revival in British historical publication. Here he focuses impressively on the total scope of World War One, from the initiating atmosphere in the various capitals and the precipitating event in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia to the momentous and ill-fated peace negotiations. Indeed, he brings impressive credentials to the task; as the foremost biographer and authority on Winston Churchill, the author of a recent three-volume work on the entire scope of the 20th century, and probably the most noted British academic on the subject. In this one volume work Gilbert displays how comprehensive his knowledge of the all the theaters of the First World War is as well. It is a commonplace that the chief characteristic of the First World War was its numbing futility; indeed, it is sometimes described as a war that settled nothing but transformed everything. Moreover, it momentously ushered out the age of monarchy and introduced the modern era, a time since characterized by startling contrasts, on one hand more popular and democratic, yet on the other hand more frightening and totalitarian. The lives of untold millions were affected by the social, economic, and political changes it forced onto the landscape of the times. The "Great War" all fatefully presaged the 20th century's subsequent taste for both sweet reason and well as maddening violence. This Great War slowly ground down everything, from four monarchies to countless millions of lives. Gilbert engages here in a painstaking effort to present the facts both exhaustively and comprehensibly, and does so masterfully. While Gilbert's approach cannot be described in what can be referred to as a stirring narrative, it is both entertaining and endlessly informative in aiding the reader in understanding the specifics of how this first great tragedy of our century occurred. In fact, he sometimes is surprisingly brief in describing a particular battle, yet manages to connect all the dots in way that is instrumental in making sense of what otherwise seems to be insane proceedings. One reviewer describes the narrative as a "painstaking compilation of fact...that prose advances like the rolling artillery barrages it describes". This captures the tone of the writing style and the reading experience perfectly. Yet at the same time he masterfully weaves together a meaningful context in which the political, military, and diplomatic aspects of the conflict are connected in a perspective that always pays compassionate heed to the overall civilian impact of the bloody struggle. As one of the foremost authorities on the 20th century, Gilbert blends the particulars of the war into history as part of the ongoing narrative, placing it in context and making it that much more meaningful. Of particular interest is the way Gilbert

A Wonderful History of the Great War

Gilbert's 'The First World War: A Complete History,' is a chronological history of the bloodiest conflict the world had ever known. Instead of sticking only to analyzation of campaigns and tactics, Gilbert attempts to tell the human story of the war with letters, anecdotes, and poetry, as well as illustrating the global signifigance of the events on the battlefield. Gilbert also tells us how the men who would become the leaders of World War Two spent the war- from lieutenant Erwin Rommel fighting in northern Italy to captain Charles de Galle being held in a German prison to First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill executing the ill-fated Dardenelles expedition. Accounts of Adolf Hitler's exploits during the war are also extremely illuminating. Gilbert also successfully conveys the maddness of era that would allow so many young men to die in the offensives of Verdun and the Somme and allow more than 5,600 men a day to meet thier end in the entire course of the war. World War One has been called the decisive event of the century. For anyone who would like to know exactly why this is true then Gilbert's history is must reading.