The First World War: An Illustrated History

The eminent British historian A.J.P. Taylor was asked if history repeated itself. Taylor answered he did not know, but the problem was apprehensively conventional historians repeated each other. Taylor's THE FIRST WORLD WAR: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY is an original, well wrttien account that attempts to be honest. Taylor knew that historians wrote "within a frame of reference" and that biases make appear even when trying to honest. This book is an attempt to give an honest account of W.W. I. Given the popular and badly distorted view of W.W. I, readers get the impression that this war was fought exclusively between the Americans and Germans. Badly written textbooks give a similiar distorted image. Taylor easily undermines such childish and false accounts. World War I began in August, 1914, and the fighting stopped on November 11, 1918. Out of the four plus years of W.W. I, U.S. participation last just 19 months. Almost all of the Europeans were in this war prior to the U.S. declaration of war on April 6, 1917. Taylor gives a brief background to W.W. I which includes Eastern Europe where the spark that started the war occured when Serbian irregulars assassinate the Hapsberg Archduke Ferdiand who was heir apparent to the Hapsburg throan in Austria Hungary(June 28, 1914). Taylor also presented a clear explanation of the tensions simmering in Eastern Europe which were fanned and exploited by the Russian Czar Nicholus II (1894-1917)and his supporters. While the course of W.W. I was complex, Taylor presented a lucid account of the ebb and flow of the war. Taylor gave concise account of war time diplomacy and the military encounters in both Eastern and Western Europe. For example, Taylor gave a good account of the Battle of Tannenberg by which a much smaller German army routed a huge Russian army. Aside from a few minor victories, this battle put the Russians on the defensive until they had to quit the war due to exhaustion. Taylor wrote a good account of rebellions and revolutions during W.W.I. For example Taylor wrote about renewed Irish resistence to their British overlords. Another example, which will be discussed later, was the Russian Revolution which brought the Bolsheviks to power in Russia. Here Taylor presented good cause and effect relationships between and seemingly unrelated events. The false impression of W.W.I being somehow glorious and wonderful are undermined by Taylor's descriptions of battles. For example in 1916, the British lost over 60,000 men the first day of the Battle of the Somme. These casuality figures are more than U.S. losses in either the Korean or Vietnam war. The battle claimed approximately 1 million lives most of whom were British and French. Taylor's statistics of the Battle of Ypres in 1917 are astounding. The British and French lost over 400,000 men while the Germans lost almost 200,000 men. Taylor explained these losses very well when he described new military tactics and weapons. The British and French launche

One of the great nightmares when having a conversation about military history is to have your companion turn round and say, "So can you recommend a book about the First World War?" There has been an extremely large output on the war and the historiography has developed and altered significantly over the years. Add to that the fact that as an event it was immense in scope and the whole concept of summing it all up in one volume is daunting to say the least. Taylor's book is ideal for the newcomer in that it is readable, concise and well illustrated with photos. Unfortunately, if somebody was ONLY going to read one book on the First War, I personally don't think it should be this one. Taylor was nothing if not a controversialist and this is typical Taylor. Taylor considered his work a success if it upset the apple cart and got people talking and with this he clearly succeeds (according to Taylor the whole thing was an enormous accident). He loved to try to find tiny causes for massive, apocalyptic events - in this case he latches onto railway timetables. Quite how close this is to reality and how much of the whole story it tells is debatable and to be honest I think the book has dated somewhat. It's a product of its time as well; there are some history books that just scream "child of the sixties" and this is one of them. On the credit side, as mentioned earlier the book is an easy read for the novice and the photos are excellent. I would just say - don't take what is contained within as gospel and while this book would be a worthy addition to your collection, it is important not to confine your reading purely to this book; a broader spread of works will allow you to see differing, perhaps more rigorously sourced, views and to put Taylor's work in context. Just bear in mind from that start that it's Taylor at the height of his eagerness to rock the boat (it's fruity old Taylor too - check out some of the captions to the photographs; "Lloyd George casts an experience eye over some munitions girls...") and that it came out of the 1960s and is very much a product of its time and you'll be fine.Incidentally, it looks very much as though as far as general history of the war goes, Hew Strachan's new work will set the standard for a long time to come. Admittedly, Strachan's opus is going to be three doorstop sized volumes by the end so there's no denying this is easier on both the wallet and the social life. Also worth checking out it John Terraine's single volume history, which is generally very affordable and gives a somewhat more forgiving view than that put forward by Taylor.

Taylor has once again proved himself one of the most impressive historians in history (forgive the pun), his detailed insight into the First World War through this book provides the reader perhaps the most genuine recollection of what actually happened. His deep analyses of the situations, followed by solid research work has perhaps kept his masterpiece from the bias commonly found with other historical books.His remarks are bitingly accurate and he approaches the situation in a no-nonsense, down to earth method which leads to solid results, he is not afraid to unveil the blanket of history and tell all what he has found.This book is a very interesting read, and filled with well placed pictures which perhaps adds more enjoyment. They are perhaps not served as examples, but more of a relaxant for the eye after a long read.Reading this book has lead me to buy his other books, including Origins of the Second World War.

Like Taylor's other books, this book consists of less than 300 pages. Roughly about 50% is pictures.(There are 221 pictures in all, most of which I liked very much.) So this book is a very small one. As a general overview of First World War, I don't feel like recommanding this book to others, for it omitted many things. For example, Taylor just ignored Armenian massacre which was committed by Turkey in 1915. Any way, no historian could compress First World War into such a small volume without jettisoning something important. The strength of this book is that Taylor squarely faced some awkward questions which other historians usually avoid. (If you can read between the lines, you would learn much from this book. If you can't, this book is just a big chunk of contradiction.) Though Taylor pointed out many follies of First World War, he said that it was well implemented in a sense: the subjects of the Habsburg Empire obtained their national freedom; some of the subjects of the Ottoman Empire started on the same path; the war postponed the domination of Europe by Germany, or perhaps prevented it.