The First World War

• Written by one of the most pre-eminent military historians
• Each chapter deals in turn with a particular period in the war, from its beginnings to the eventual surrender of the Central Powers and the settlement
• Succinct and accessible, guiding the reader through the major controversies that still surround the history of the war
• There is no other short book about World War I on the market written by an author of Michael Howard's stature

Readership: General readers interested in the First World War; students of modern history and warfare.

Michael Howard, Emeritus Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford & Yale University

Review(s) from previous edition

"Review(s) from previous edition

"succinct, comprehensive and beautifully written. Indeed reading it is an experience comparable to scanning the clues of a well-composed crossword puzzle. Every allusion is eventually supplied with an answer, and the finished product defies the puzzler's disbelief that the intricacies can be brought to a convincing conclusion. . . . Michael Howard is the master of the short book - TLS

"Howard expertly and succintly summarizes the Great War for the layperson... volume is an excellent way to get a grounding in this momentous subject" - Forbes Global 21/03/03

"an enlightened idea to produce a very short account of the great war - a page per month - . . . . But if, in 2014, bright schoolchildren, their brains putified by GCSE, get around to asking what the first world war was about, Howard's book will be very valuable." - The Times, Culture

"Professor Sir Michael Howard, . . ., is our best living military historian, and perhaps also strategic thinker. His new work is a masterly introduction to the Great War, desgined for those with no previous knowldge of the subject. . . . Any new student who reads Michael Howard should go on to address the first volume of Hew Strachan's huge new work on the same theme. There is great wisdom in both books, and wisdom on this subject is in short supply." - Sunday Telegraph

1: Europe in 1914
2: The Coming of War
3: 1914: The Opening Campaigns
4: 1915: The War Continues
5: 1916: The War of Attrition
6: The United States Enters the War
7: 1917: The Year of Crisis
8: 1918: The Year of Decision
9: The Settlement
Appendix I: President Wilson's Fourteen Points
Appendix II: Total War Casualties
Further Reading