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The First World War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Czarist Russia > Item 191
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The First World War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
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by Michael Howard
Sales Rank: 75408
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List Price: $11.95
$9.56
At Amazon
on 11-1-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 156 pages
Published by: Oxford University Press, USA May 20, 2007
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0199205590
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0199205592
Book Dimensions:
9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
Weighs: 14.1 ounces
From Booklist
A distinguished British historian presents the central events of World War I for readers who are curious but unknowledgeable about the conflict. It is comparable in style to the author's recent The Invention of Peace (2001). Succinctly expressive, Howard's style concentrates narrative and interpretation within a few sentences, but a deep historical controversy often lurks behind his concision, such as who was responsible for igniting the war. For those readers who are incredulous that a global conflagration could erupt from an assassination, Howard summarizes how the alliance systems came about, the fears of the nations that contracted them, and the special resentments of a German monarch who embodied "archaic militarism, vaulting ambition, and neurotic insecurity." Just as perplexing, perhaps, is the continuance for four years of trench warfare; once again, Howard compactly explains the slight alterations in tactics that generals believed would achieve a breakthrough, but produced instead the bloodbaths that by 1917-18 broke armies and entire regimes. Also touching on the war's course in Italy and Eastern Europe, Howard elegantly applies his erudition and judgment to this concise introduction. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Review
`Review from previous edition Review from previous edition succinct, comprehensive and gorgeously 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 great 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
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The First World War (Paperback)
I was suprised when the book arrived because not only is it just 170 pages, but the book is the size of a paperback so it's really almost an extended essay in length. A few nice pictures add atmosphere and some maps although they don't show every place refrenced in the text, but do show places not refrenced so that could have been better. I have never read WWI history but known a lot from popular culure. I knew about certain broad themes like the domino effect of alliances but overall it seemed like a highly complex and boring war. Yet I also knew this war was vital to understanding such things as the origins of WWII, the origins of the middle east conflicts, nationalism. The origins of the modern age. Imagine knowing a subject so well you could write an encyclopedia that had to be condensed down to a long essay. Michael Howard does this with incredible skill, because of the limiting length every sentence is a pure nugget of insight he makes no waste of the space provided. The major points of military, social and political are covered allowing one to see the entire war from start to finish in very short order and without spending months trumping through the trenches of detail and anecdote one might find in more lengthy or specific books. I rate this book highly because it did exactly what I was hopeing for. A short easy to read high level overview of the war to provide a spring board to read more areas in detail in the future and to understand the war in relation to other larger historical forces.
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The First World War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
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Price: $9.56
Updated on 11-1-2008.
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