The First World War : A New History

368 pages. Hew Strachan is one of the world's foremost experts on the Great War of 1914- 18. His ongoing three-volume history of the conflict, the first of which was pub lished in 2001, is likely to become the standard academic reference work: Max Ha stings called it 'one of the most impressive books of modern history in a genera tion', while Richard Holmes hailed it as a 'towering achievement'. Now, Hew Stra chan brings his immense knowledge to a one-volume work aimed squarely at the gen eral reader. The inspiration for and a companion volume to the major Channel 4 s eries of the same name, to which Hew has been chief consultant, THE FIRST WORLD WAR is a significant addition to the literature on this subject, taking as it do es a uniquely global view of what is often misconceived as a prolonged skirmish on the Western Front. Exploring such theatres as the Balkans, Africa and the Ott oman Empire, Hew Strachan goes on to assess Britain's participation in the light of what became a struggle for the defence of liberalism, and show how the war s haped the 'short' twentieth century that followed it. Accessible, compelling and utterly convincing, this is a modern history writing at its finest.…