The First World War: A Very Short Introduction

For a little book as compact as this, Howard does a quite enviable task of outlining the 'Great War'. In fact, calling it an outline, or indeed 'very short', does it a disservice. Howard doesn't leave anything substantial out or waste any pages with discussion of the trivial. The impression given is of a historian trying to let the events speak for themselves. After reading the book I felt not only that it had given me a better grasp of the chronology and course of the war, but also answers to some of the key questions. Why the war, in the end, was unavoidable given the clumsy diplomacy of Bismark's successors. Why the morale of the German army and of the home front crumbled despite the vast (yet brief) empire in the east gained by the defeat of Russia. And why, because of French (and American) insistance upon a harsh peace, the rise of Hitler was inevitable and the carnage repeated on a still grander scale, ony 20 years later.

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.

Military historian Michael Howard has written a brilliant condensation of the seminal event of the short twentieth century.In particular, Howard examines the dilemma of modern democracies engaged in a popular war with increasingly devastating consequences, and the difficulty politicians encounter in seeking peace without "betraying" the fallen. In fact, as Howard notes, accusations of just such a betrayal led directly to the rise of Nazism and a repeat of the slaughter on an even grander scale.Howard deftly summarizes the current theories on why the war happened, captures the horror of trench warfare and of mass assaults on fortified positions, and effectively illuminates why the war has influenced all subsequent events. For Americans, many of whom consider this war as merely a little known prelude to the Second World War, this book is an indispensable introduction. For those who know more, Howard clearly states, and supports, his opinion on many disputed topics, such as the role of German naval construction in fueling Anglo-German emnity, and leading to eventual British military intervention, which arguably made the war a world, as opposed to a European, war. There is a brief but excellent annotated list of further suggested reading.

This book is a quite good very brief introduction to World War I. All aspects are covered, though concetration is on military events viewed from a high strategic level. Thus, only about a page is spent on the Battle of the Marne and surrounding events, but the reader is made aware of the basic movements and their importance. And, in one paragraph, the author conveys a better feel for the ebb and flow on the eastern front in 1914 than usually happens in more detailed histories. One is never going to lose sight of the forest for the trees in this book! There are spare but useful maps, some photographs, and a table of casualty figures. There are a few misprints, and some awkward syntax on occasion. Also, from a style viewpoint, I felt the author overused the phrase "as we have seen". But those are minor quibbles about an overall excellent book.

The book is small and very short. That means it cannot discuss things in details, and thus one cannot expect to be an expert by reading it.The book does explain most of the major events, all very briefly, all very well.