The First World War

A New History

Hew Strachan author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Simon & Schuster Ltd

Published:13th Feb '14

Should be back in stock very soon

The First World War cover

‘Quite simply the best short history of the war in print . . . Strachan has emerged as the master of us all who write of war in English’ Dennis Showalter

A brilliant and penetrating new history of the First World War by one of the world's foremost experts on the conflict. With an introduction from the author.


The popular view of the First World War is dominated by cliché: young British soldiers, many of them budding poets, led to early and ghastly deaths in muddy wastes by incompetent generals for reasons that were seemingly futile. As this magisterial new one volume history of the war illustrates, however, the cliché is only part of the truth. Hew Strachan argues that the war had become a ‘world war’ long before the involvement of the United States, and that for those liberal countries struggling to defend their freedoms, the war was far from futile. 

Accessible, compelling and utterly convincing, this is modern history writing at its finest.

‘This is a book to buy if you aren’t lucky enough to be given it’ -- Christopher Hudson * Daily Mail Books of the Year *
‘I have seldom chanced upon a short book which so brilliantly brings to life and explains an immensely complex historical phenomenon’  -- Paul Johnson * Spectator *
‘Every chapter contains revelations . . . The level of erudition and insight brought to bear have made the familiar strange and stimulating. The way in which Strachan brings together the detail of events and the big picture to build a compelling narrative is masterly. It really is a massive achievement’  -- Stephen Bungay

ISBN: 9781471134265

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

400 pages

Reissue