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1914-1918: The History of the First World War | 
 enlarge | Author: David Stevenson
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £11.99
Buy New: £6.78
You Save: £5.21 (43%)
New (22) Used (9) from £6.78
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 7445
Media: Paperback
Pages: 784
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0140268170
EAN: 9780140268171
ASIN: 0140268170
Publication Date: September 1, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: IN STOCK - BRAND NEW - SENT FIRST CLASS - IMMEDIATE DISPATCH
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Not an accidental war... January 4, 2009
I. S. Barker (Lancaster UK)
If you think that the European powers stumbled into the Great War by accident; that the generals were numbskulls who learned nothing from the slaughter on the Somme or at Verdun; or that the sudden collapse of Germany in 1918 owed little to British and French efforts, then read this book and think again.
This is a superb history of World War One, clearly written and comprehensive in its scope. Stevenson is clear that the origins of the war were not accidental. Politicians on both sides had choices and they chose war or the threat of war as preferable to the alternatives. In particular Austria-Hungary and Germany wanted a war in the Balkans and were willing to risk its escalation into a general European war.
This isn't a purely military history, although there are enough military details to understand why in the central years of the war defence usually prevailed over attack and neither side was able to achieve a decisive breakthrough on the Western Front. Stephenson shows how military tactics evolved on both sides and while the new weapons of tanks, gas and aircraft played a part, the decisive innovations were in the co-ordination of artillery with infantry.
Stevenson shows how the Allies were able to mobilise their greater economic resources and enforce the blockade of Germany and translate these into a military superiority that was able to absorb the Ludendorff offensives in early 1918 and then break the German resistance in Flanders. In this, the repeated willingness of Germany to risk all on further military initiatives brought about its own defeat. The decision to adopt unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917 brought the USA into the war. The 1918 offensives broke the German army while ultimately failing to break the Allies.
This is an impressive book that changed my views on the origins and conduct of the war.
 Not the first book to buy about the 1914-1918 war, but maybe the second. January 2, 2009
Clare Topping (Northamptonshire, UK)
1914-1918: The History of the First World War
I bought this book knowing nothing much about the First World War. I had heard of the Somme, Ypres, Passchendale, but not much else. I knew its beginnings originated with the assassination of the archduke in Serbia, but not how that came to start such a massive conflict or why it lasted so long.
I now feel that I have a much better understanding of these and so many other elements of the war in what is a fantastically detailed and well-researched book. It includes all the stages of the war; from the reasons for the start, major phases in the war when the Central Powers were in the ascendancy, the Russian withdrawal and the involvement of America, through to the after-effects on world politics and economics.
However, for a first read about such a major episode it was too detailed with many facts and figures about the number of shells fired/produced etc. This is not to detract from the book which is excellent, it is just to say that, if, like me, you know very little about the First World War, then perhaps you will find this book a little heavy going and difficult to read.
That said, I will be keeping hold of the book so that I can go over sections of it now I have a better general understanding of the war, its major characters, the politics and battles.
A very good place to start in comprehending the incomprehensible August 10, 2008
John Ferngrove (Hants UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This was the first serious book on WWI that I read. It should be made clear, as I think another reviewer bemoans, that this is not a chronological military history, but rather a 'meta'-historical account that examines the war from various perspectives running orthogonal to the timeline. So we come to understand the social, economic, industrial and political dimensions of the war.
I give it five stars because it exploded so many of the pre-conceptions I had held about the war. In the 60s & 70s when I was doing my O-level history at school the wisdom imparted was that WWI was a misery inflicted upon the masses by an uncaring ruling class. I now understand that none of the belligerent populations (with the complex exception of Russia) would have tolerated capitulation by their governments. I learned how Lloyd George as minister of munitions transformed Britain's munitions industry (that was making more duds than effectives) from a haphazard and rather ineffectual club of gentleman industrialists into a unified system of mass production that put Britain back into the fight. We learn about decisive technological and strategic failures and the decisive strategic and technological successes.
One of the most interesting chapters is the final one that deals with the history of Germany's war guilt. Once more the wisdom taught in my schooldays was that Germany was the unequivocal villain in the whole tragedy. But we find in this chapter that there was a long and complex story that lead up to Germany accepting this mantle that was actually encouraged by its more straightforward culpability for WWII. And that the story might yet take another twist as modern Germany starts to examine the origins afresh.
One thing I must say is that I now have read several detailed accounts of the beginnings of the war and how it escalated from the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand, and there are as many interpretations of what happened and where the blame lies, as there are accounts. Counterfactual aguments abound - if Russia had not mobilised so early against Austro-Hungary, and so on, and most controversially perhaps, would it truly have just been a replay of the Franco-Prussion war and over by Christmas if Lord Grey had not committed Britain to the fray. So, caveat emptor, take no single account of the origins of the war as definitive. I think it was Hugh Trevor-Roper that said that the final cause of WWI was that an intricate system of checks and balances that had given general peace in Europe for a hundred years, just suddenly went off the rails, as it was sooner or later bound to do. In the end it was everybody's fault and nobody's.
If you want to learn about the First World War, read this book. August 9, 2008
Christopher Wright
It's hard work reading this book. It's over 600 closely-typed pages long and it can be daunting to turn a page and be met with such dense text and hardly a break. However, I found myself engrossed nearly all the time.
As other reviewers have mentioned, this books deals witht the war mainly at a strategic and political level. It's not always easy to follow and I could have easily gone back and re-read bits a few times, but I decided not to do that. Having finished the book, I may have trouble recalling parts in detail for example, what Ludendorff and Hindenburg's titles were, and I'd have to look them up in the index and re-read, but I also feel that I've learnt a significant amount about this war. I feel well-placed now to either read other books, re-read this book, view DVDs or read about the Second World War.
The First World War was a collosal event and I'm sure reading one book doesn't do it justice but there is no doubt in my mind that my understanding has taken a leap forward!
Excelent April 19, 2008
P. J. Dawes (Bracknell, Berkshire United Kingdom)
This is an excellent read - both in its coverage and the writing itself. It is very readable and also covers aspects of the war that ordinarily are only covered in 'great tomes', such as morale on the battlefields, the press war and the effects on the home fronts.
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