First World War

Resumen del libro

The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unparalleled ferocity which extended far beyond its European epicentre, it broke the century of relative peace and prosperity which we associate with the Victorian era and unleashed the demons of the twentieth century - pestilence, military destruction and mass death - and also the ideas which continue to shape our world today - modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, and radical ideas about economics and society.
An event of this scale and complexity needs a distinguished historian to portray it, and in his new book, John Keegan fulfils a life-long ambition to write the definitive book on the war for our generation. It was of course foremost a military conflict, and the battles on land, sea and in the air form the narrative heart of his study, with some fascinating new interpretations of the military events. But the war also acted as a formidable engine for social change throughout the world, and this too is brilliantly revealed in this new book. At its heart, however, is the terrible human cost of this unparalleled conflict, the loss which, however vastly extended, remains personal and individual.