Synopses & Reviews
This is the first truly definitive history of World War I, the war that has had the greatest impact on the course of the twentieth century. The first generation of its historians had access to a limited range of sources, and they focused primarily on military events. More recent approaches have embraced cultural, diplomatic, economic, and social history. In this authoritative and readable history, Hew Strachan combines these perspectives with a military and strategic narrative. The result is an account that breaks the bounds of national preoccupations to become both global and comparative.
The first of three volumes in this magisterial study, To Arms examines not only the causes of the war and its opening clashes on land and sea, but also the ideas that underpinned it, and the motivations of the people who supported it. It provides pioneering accounts of the war's finances, the war in Africa, and the Central Powers' bid to widen the war outside Europe.
Review
"Deserves to rank as one of the most impressive books of modern history in a generation. It reflects 20 years of research, and mastery of the literature of many nations....The book addresses every aspect of global conflict--diplomacy, politics, finance, industry, battle on land and at sea, in Europe, Africa, and around the world.....Magnificent."--The London Evening Standard
"A towering achievement of protracted and painstaking scholarship. Strachan has read--and read closely--a daunting amount of the literature in English, French, and German. His knowledge is encyclopedic on everything from high finance to high explosives."--The New York Review of Books
Synopsis
This is the first truly definitive history of World War I, the war that has had the greatest impact on the course of the twentieth century. The first generation of its historians had access to a limited range of sources, and they focused primarily on military events. More recent approaches
have embraced cultural, diplomatic, economic, and social history. In this authoritative and readable history, Hew Strachan combines these perspectives with a military and strategic narrative. The result is an account that breaks the bounds of national preoccupations to become both global and
comparative.
The first of three volumes in this magisterial study, To Arms examines not only the causes of the war and its opening clashes on land and sea, but also the ideas that underpinned it, and the motivations of the people who supported it. It provides pioneering accounts of the war's finances, the war
in Africa, and the Central Powers' bid to widen the war outside Europe.
About the Author
"Deserves to rank as one of the most impressive books of modern history in a generation. It reflects 20 years of research, and mastery of the literature of many nations....The book addresses every aspect of global conflict--diplomacy, politics, finance, industry, battle on land and at sea, in Europe, Africa, and around the world.....Magnificent."--The London Evening Standard
"Definitive" is a much overused word, but this work merits the term. The first in a three-volume history that explores nearly every aspect of the war, from finance to ideology to diplomacy to armaments, it combines depth with staggering breadth, acute analysis with magisterial narrative."--The Atlantic Monthly
"'Definitive', proclaims the blurb accompanying the first volume of Hew Strachan's magnificent new history of the first world war, and definitive it is. There will be two further volumes...The result will be a scholarly triumph. In a field cluttered with competitors Mr. Strachan will be lengths ahead."--The Economist
"Massive in size and impressive in scope, Strachan's work promises to be the definitive account of the Great War in English." --Choice
Table of Contents
List of Maps
Introduction
The origins of the war
Willingly to war
The western front in 1914
The eastern front in 1914
The war in northern waters 1914-15
War in the Pacific
The dark continent: colonial conflict in sub-Saharan Africa
Turkey's entry
Germany's global strategy
Financing the war
Industrial mobilization
Conclusion: The ideas of 1914
Bibliography
Index