As the first survivors die out, the First World War passes into the realm of history. This book is a consideration of various aspects of the British experience of the war in the light of more recent historiographical trends: but also a prediction of how these areas are likely to be researched and written about in the future.
The central theme is how our understanding of the war is likely to change now that first hand experience has been lost.
The contributors to this book are:
Michael Howard
Gary Sheffield
Dan Todman
Stephen Badsey
Terry Charman
Esther Maccallum Stewart
Gavin Stamp
Brian Bond
Dominic Hibberd
Michael Burleigh
Jane Potter
Terry Castle
Ian Bostridge
Max Saunders
Julian Putkowski
Malcolm Brown
Trevor Wilson
Peter Hart
Santanu Das
Nick Hewitt
Tony Pollard
Nicholas Reeves
Lyn MacDonald
Sir Michael Howard served with the British Army in Italy during the Second World War and was awarded a Military Cross. Thereafter he established the Department of War Studies at King's College London, which he left to become first Chilchele Professor of the History of War, and then Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, ending his professional career as Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale. He has been awarded The Order of Merit and is a Companion of Honour. In addition to his own History of the First World War, his works include The Franco-Prussian War, War in European History, and most recently Liberation or Catastrophe.