World War I: References & Edit History

John Keegan, The First World War (1999), is a good dramatic overview. Comprehensive general accounts include Gerard J. DeGroot, The First World War (2000); and Spencer C. Tucker, The Great War 1914–1918 (1998). The contributions to Hew Strachan (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War (1998), an anthology, combine for a first-rate survey.

The best analysis of the war’s origins is in Hew Strachan, The First World War: To Arms (2001), the first of a projected three volumes. Hew Strachan, The First World War, 1 vol. (2003), is a companion book of a video documentary also titled The First World War (2003), produced and narrated by Jonathan Lewis for the United Kingdom’s Channel 4 television. The classic documentary, featuring interviews with veterans still living at the time and made with the cooperation of the Imperial War Museum, is The Great War (1964), produced by Tony Essex and Gordon Watkins for the British Broadcasting Corporation and narrated principally by Sir Michael Redgrave.

Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War (1999), is best read as an extended interpretive essay. A more-detailed account is provided in Luigi Albertini, The Origins of the War of 1914, 3 vol. (1952–57, reissued 2005; originally published in Italian, 1942–43). Facing Armageddon: The First World War Experience (1996, reissued 2003), ed. by Hugh Cecil and Peter H. Liddle, includes a large number of excellent specialized essays covering the entire war. Passchendaele in Perspective: The Third Battle of Ypres (1997), ed. by Peter H. Liddle; and At the Eleventh Hour: Reflections, Hopes and Anxieties at the Closing of the Great War, 1918 (1998), ed. by Hugh Cecil and Peter H. Liddle, focus on the later years. Roger Chickering and Stig Förster (eds.), Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization on the Western Front, 1914–1918 (2000, reissued 2006), addresses the war as a total experience.

Jay Winter and Richard Wall (eds.), The Upheaval of War: Family, Work and Welfare in Europe, 1914–1918 (1988, reissued 2005), an anthology, provides a comparison of home fronts. The contributions to John Horne (ed.), State, Society, and Mobilization in Europe During the First World War (1997, reissued 2002), offer case studies of responses to specific stresses. Gerd Hardach, The First World War, 1914–1918 (1987), is strong on economics and is accessible to nonspecialists.

Among works on specific participants, Holger H. Herwig, The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914–1918 (1997), tells the story of the Central Powers’ war with flair and insight. Norman Stone, The Eastern Front, 1914–1917 (1975, reissued 1998), covers tsarist Russia’s efforts. France’s war is the focus of Jean-Jacques Becker, The Great War and the French People (1985); and Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, Men at War, 1914–1918: National Sentiment and Trench Journalism in France During the First World War (1991). Gerard J. DeGroot, Blighty: British Society in the Era of the Great War (1996), challenges conventional wisdom. David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1980, reissued 2004), analyzes the American experience.

On particular campaigns and theatres, Martin Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme (1971, reissued 2006); and Alistair Horne, The Price of Victory: Verdun 1916 (1962, reissued 1993), are general-audience works. Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, Passchendaele: The Untold Story (1996, reissued 2002), is an academic analysis; and John R. Schindler, Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War (2001), takes a similar approach to the Italian front. Barbara W. Tuchman, The Guns of August (1962, reissued 2005), is a classic; it is best read in conjunction with Sewell Tyng, The Campaign of the Marne (1935, reissued 2007), still a standard.

The routines of the Western Front are the subject of Tony Ashworth, Trench Warfare 1914–1918: The Live and Let Live System (1980, reissued 2004); and John Ellis, Eye-Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I (1976, reissued 2002). Bruce I. Gudmundsson, Stormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914–1918 (1989, reissued 1995), discusses the German attempt to find a tactical solution. Tim Travers, The Killing Ground (1987, reissued 2009), and How the War Was Won (1992, reissued 2005), present the British approach; while Bill Rawling, Surviving Trench Warfare (1992), is a Canadian counterpoint. G.D. Sheffield, Leadership in the Trenches (2000), covers officer-man relations in the British army; and Peter Simkins, Kitchener’s Army (1988, reissued 2007), analyzes the last great volunteer force. Douglas Porch, The March to the Marne: The French Army 1871–1914 (1981, reissued 2003), is excellent on the French army within its prewar context. Leonard V. Smith, Between Mutiny and Obedience (1994), interprets the mentality of the French wartime force by focusing on one of its divisions. Edward M. Coffman, The War to End All Wars (1968, reissued 1998); and James H. Hallas (ed.), Doughboy War (2000), combine to present the American Expeditionary Force experience. Edward J. Erickson, Ordered to Die (2000), surveys the Ottoman army.

On the war at sea, Arthur J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged, 5 vol. (1978– ), is a detailed presentation from a British perspective. Paul G. Halpern, A Naval History of World War I (1994), is more comprehensive and less forbidding. Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War (1991), a detailed and anecdotal treatment of the naval arms race leading up to the war, focuses on the personal rivalry between the opposing monarchs. Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea (2003), is an equally exhaustive sequel that carries the rivalry through the great naval battles of the war.

John H. Morrow, The Great War in the Air (1993, reissued 2009); and Lee Kennett, The First Air War, 1914–1918 (1991), cover the new “third element” of conflict.

The war’s mentalities are discussed in Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age (1989, reissued 2000); and in Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (1975, reissued 2009), a classic. John Horne and Alan Kramer, German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial (2001), analyzes the psychology of atrocities. Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (1995), deals with emotional legacies.

On the peace, contributions to Manfred F. Boemeke, Gerald D. Feldman, and Elisabeth Glaser (eds.), The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment After 75 Years (1998, reissued 2006), combine to make a case that the Versailles treaties offered at least reasonable possibilities for reconstruction and reconciliation. Arno J. Mayer, The Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking: Containment and Counterrevolution at Versailles (1967), stresses Western fear of radicalism in determining the peace processes.