The First World War: A Complete History

✍ Scribed by Gilbert, Martin

• Publisher: RosettaBooks
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 633
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

They called it the War to End All Wars, but it was only the beginning of the global conflicts that rocked the 20th Century. The First World War redrew national boundaries, eliminated monarchies, and left millions of soldiers and civilians dead, and its impact has continued to shape the Western political and social landscape since.

In this sweeping narrative, best-selling historian Martin Gilbert provides a view of the conflict thatOCOs both global and personal, drawing on eyewitness accounts, contemporary reporting, and first-hand documentation. It offers an immediate, compelling voice to familiar historical events, bringing new facets of the conflict to life and personalizing the tale with gripping survivor testimonies."

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 2
Copyright......Page 3
Contents......Page 4
List of maps......Page 5
Introduction......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 13
1. Prelude to war......Page 15
2. ‘Wild with joy’......Page 28
3. The opening struggle......Page 45
4. From Mons to the Marne......Page 62
5. Digging in: the start of trench warfare......Page 82
6. Towards the first Christmas: ‘mud and slime and vermin’......Page 101
7. Stalemate and the search for breakthroughs......Page 122
8. The Gallipoli landings......Page 142
9. The Entente in danger......Page 149
10. The Central Powers in the ascendant......Page 168
11. The continuing failure of the Entente......Page 186
12. ‘This war will end at Verdun’......Page 210
13. ‘Europe is mad. The world is mad.’......Page 228
14. The Battle of the Somme: ‘It is going to be a bloody holocaust’......Page 241
15. War on every front......Page 262
16. The intensification of the war......Page 279
17. War, desertion, mutiny......Page 300
18. Stalemate in the west, turmoil in the east......Page 317
19. Battle at Passchendaele; Revolution in Russia......Page 334
20. The terms of war and peace......Page 345
21. The Central Powers on the verge of triumph......Page 361
22. Germany’s last great onslaught......Page 372
23. ‘The battle, the battle, nothing else counts’......Page 381
24. The Allied counter-attack......Page 394
25. The turn of the tide......Page 414
26. The collapse of the Central Powers......Page 431
27. The final armistice......Page 452
28. Peacemaking and remembrance......Page 459
29. ‘… to the memory of that great company’......Page 477
Bibliography......Page 494
Maps......Page 506
Index......Page 538
Endnotes......Page 613

✦ Subjects

History;Nonfiction;War;World War I;Military;Military History;Military Fiction;World History;European History;Historical;North American Hi...;American History