The First World War: A Complete History

The year 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, also known as “The Great War” and “The War to End All Wars.” It was one of the bloodiest and most violent wars in human history, and any understanding of our war-torn world since 1918 begins with an understanding of it – why it began, how it was fought, and what effect it has had on humanity since it ended.One of the best books I’ve read about World War I is "The First World War: The Complete History” by Martin Gilbert. First published in 1994, this book provides a comprehensive look at the Great War from its beginning in 1914 until its end four years later. I think it is a superb work of history.Martin Gilbert (1936-2015), a British historian and biographer is probably best known for his multi-volume official biography of Sir Winston Churchill. However, he also wrote many other excellent works of history, including “The Holocaust,” “The First World War,” and “The Second World War.” In all his works, Gilbert provides readers with a smooth, easy, and highly readable style.In “The First World War,” Gilbert provides wide-ranging coverage of nearly every front in this genuinely world-wide war. Most people today associate World War I with mud-caked soldiers bleeding in the trenches of the western front in France; however, there were many other fronts as well. Gilbert takes readers to eastern Europe, along the border between Germany and Russia, where there were scenes of savage combat. In the Balkans, a bitter war raged between Austria, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), and Bulgaria on one side, and Serbia, Italy, Greece, and Britain on the other. At Gallipoli, Gilbert describes Britain’s failed attempt to break the stalemate on the western by attacking the Central Powers in the east. And back on the western front, he takes his readers into a starkly barren, cratered "no-man's land," where poison gas, colossal artillery bombardments, and massed infantry assaults were the order of each day.In every respect, “The First World War: The Complete History” is an outstanding book that will provide readers with a greater understanding of the causes, effects, and events World War I. Highly recommended.

I didn’t know much about WW1 so I started here. Fascinating and informative. I didn’t know so many poets fought in the war.

I loved the level of details of this book. Very pedagogical and easy to red.

If you're looking for a good, sophisticated but not too complex history of the first world war, this book will certainly reach and exceed your expectations. It is long and comprehensive, but very informative, and once read one can keep it at hand for reference.There is just one, somewhat irritating flaw in the book: too much poetry. Martin Gilbert, as he writes in his foreword, interviewed survivors of the war and quotes a great number of documents, diaries, etc that soldiers, officers and higher-ups wrote from the fronts. But, annoying to myself and others I'm sure, he also lends a lot of attention to poetry written by the combatants to their families, or whatever. Every few pages we find these poems - and if you're not an admirer of poetry (especially concerning poems that don't rhyme) you'll be every bit as peeved as I was. Fortunately this is not too overwhelming, and only once in a while does the author resort to this.In spite of this rather disturbing element, the flow of the books is perfect; every front is covered, and virtually all details of the war are set clearly.Some other reviews have complained that the book is written from a preponderantly British perspective. This is true to some extent, because it was no doubt far easier for the author to collect British documents from archives etc. than such letters written in German, Russian, etc. - and surely there is far less documentation surviving from that war nowadays than in Britain. As for America, they only joined the war in 1917, and their contribution was way too late, if not too little. The Americans are in no way ignored till then; but no American perspective would be appropriate. Anyway, provided the reader is an English-speaker, there'd be no point in setting the book from the perspective of the Central Powers, would there?In comparison to Martin Gilbert's The Second World War: A Complete History, this book is not as exciting and nostalgic but still has excellent flavour. Unlike the Second World War, this book has a good introduction and preface covering the crisis preceding the outbreak of war.In conclusion: the best WW1 history that I have found, and you'll surely agree once you've read it!

We think we know things and of course most of the times it is not true. The Entente was always loosing. This is a big, hard, suffocating, sad, and anxious read, that clarifies so many things for me. The Great War was almost lost since the beginning. And there was never a point of place were the Allied were clearly superior. That is a very scary thing to realize, knowing what will come after.This book is so well researched and edited, the work is superb. The maps are helpful but I find that sometimes I got lost in all the details, maybe because I am new at reading military history. One thing I could not make myself care more about was the poetry, I found myself skipping on it, even when I knew it was there to bring more emotion to all the facts. I am surely reading picking up The Second World War.

Excellent read, to find out Austrian-Hungary started the war and not the Germans like I always thought blew my mind. To give a Serbia the “ultimate ultimatum” and still attack them when they accept the ultimatum, and tell your German allies they didn’t accept… shady act that cost millions of lives. However on the same note, after discovering Serbia did accept the Ultimatum shortly before war started, the Kaiser after telling their allies “All need for war has been removed”, should not have backed Austria-Hungary which would have made them back down and prevented a war.Reading about the battles, reading the letters explaining the horrors of war, was eye opening. Especially Private Singh who got shot in the head twice, but kept storming the trenches. The Newfoundland private that had his legs blown off, but couldn’t understand why he couldn’t stand up as he hadn’t realized his legs were gone.Pershing, examining the wounded, finding one soldier missing his arms and when the soldier stated “sorry sir, I can not solute you”, with Pershing’s reply of “No private, it’s I who should be saluting you” moved me. Also hearing America didn’t make it in the war until very late in 1918, and British and French were very worried they would be defeated before America even got there was very surprising.Definitely recommend this book.

Un muy bien escrito libro, súper bien integrado y muy neutral, el mejor libro que puedes comprar sobre la gran guerra

A comprehensive history from a proven scholar. Very impressive and enlightening.

The events are described in great detail. The stories of the people involved bring out the human aspect of the war. The author has endeavoured to provide a record of events instead of personal opinions.

The book gives a day to day account of how this terrible episode evolved. The human side of it is quite touching. Again and again, one can see how the "dear cousins" (Kaiser Wilhelm, George V, Nicholas II Emperor Franz Joseph) could have prevented the war and decided against it.