Customer Reviews

The First World War

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Howard is a great historian and he manages to boil the First World War down to 135 pages. This is an informative work for those who do not have the time to invest in a more detailed book.
It breaks down the war into an introduction, and the years of the war, plus the results of the war. If one is looking for specific information about battles, then this is not the book for the reader.
As Howard relates in his introduction, there is still a lot of controversy about some aspects of the war. Howard relates the most popular versions, but the reader can still chose to second guess. This is good starter book for those interested in the First World War.

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.

A decent summary, even concise; a basic introduction to the conflagration that is referred to as the First World War. As others have stated, this book is all three, but at the same time is superficial, pedestrian, and lacking in originality. For example: "Since the Great War of 1914-1918 was fought on all the oceans of the world and ultimately involved belligerents from every continent, it can justifiably be termed a "world war". But it was certainly not the first. European powers had been fighting each other all over the globe for the previous 300 years." Those are the opening sentences in this short hardcover book of 143 (junior-sized) pages. This book has 7 very simple maps; basically of various maps of Europe at this time, with almost nothing in detail of the battle lines of the conflict. The author repeatedly mentions lines of defense & areas of attack, but offers no aids herein regarding maps and/or description. What you get from reading this work is not, in short, much better than what you'd get from a fairly decent encyclopedia treatment; and at least there you'd get a few color battle maps instead of the ink lines that suffice in this work. Yes, this volume is billed as "A very short introduction"; I acknowledge that, and with the limitations that implies. I just don't see why one would choose this selection; of, in effect, rice cakes simply because you may not be interested in having a heavy meal. My recommendation thus is to look to John Keegan or others for more value, substance, and insight concerning the "Great War". Cheers!

With this fine book, Sir Michael Howard again shows his mastery of military history broadly conceived and his gift for distilling a broad and complex subject. Interested readers should keep in mind that this book is a volume in Oxford University Press's "Very Short Introduction" series, and not expect of a book intended to start readers thinking on a subject the massive, definitive study that has been produced by scholars such as John Keegan and Hew Strachan.

The perfect introduction to the First World War. Howard has the gift of brevity. In less than 200 pages he has written the entire history of the great war. Howard has some unique theories that make this book worth reading even for someone who knows a great deal about the war. If you want a massive amount of detail read Keegan, if you want the war in a nutshell read Howard. His history of the Franco-Prussian War is a must read, also.

If ever a book should have been titled, "A Short History of World War I", this was it. It's an excellent starter if you know nothing. My only complaint is that he says very little about the Brusilov offensive in the section with that title, and only later in the book refers back to the battle. Other than that , very good. He gives a good account of the coming of war. If you want to start learning about the war start here. This basic account will give you some kind of structure from which to start.

To the military historian or enthusiast there is no end to how comprehensive, or how much detail there should be in a book on the Great War. So one should relax and accept the short military history that the vast majority from the general public want to read.

For those in the know, Michael Howard is a great historian who perhaps never wanted and never received the public exposure in Britain that another great historian A. J. P. Taylor received. A. J. P. Taylor also wrote a short history, "The First World War an Illustrated History". The Taylor history is twice as long, and is more interesting because personalities, motives and anecdotes give colour to the story. The illustrations are part of the historical record and reveal the horror. In Taylor's history the author is always present to make a wisecrack, not always good history but we all laugh.

With half as many words to work with (154 pages vs 296 pages), the Michael Howard military history emphasizes the broad historical sweep, how to war started, how the war was conducted and the uneasy settlement. A short history can be more difficult to write because one has to know what to leave out and what to emphasize. Every word is carefully weighed and a balanced mature interpretation is the result. The Taylor history is entertaining, while the Howard history is compact for the professional student. If you were studying for an exam the Howard book is superior. Both books, however, can be equally recommended.