Customer Reviews

The Great War, 1914-1918

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This is a well done introduction to WWI. This brief book covers the outbreak of war, all the major operations, the technology of warfare, the peace settlement, and touches on the political and social history of the war. It is written in a clear and unadorned, at times, telegraphic style, has adequate maps, and a very nice bibliography. This book is a good choice for anyone seeking an accurate overview of WWI and looking for a good entry into the extensive literature on this subject. My only criticisms are that the author could have included some text on the experience of combat in WWI and that the bibliography be annotated. These are relatively minor flaws in a very good book. It is interesting to compare this book to John Keegan's ballyhoed book on the same topic. This is definitely the better book. Tucker's book contains all the substantial information in Keegan's book plus considerable additional valuable information, better maps and a more extensive bibliography. This book is also half as long as Keegan's book. An excellent performance by Professor Tucker.

A fairly complete narrative which includes a reasonable treatment of the air and sea war as well as the introduction of mechanized warfare. Nicely divides the war into phases to help the reader understand the big picture. Hardly any stories of individuals but rather deals with armies and ideals. Dry reading if you are looking for a novel but still an excellent resource for someone who wants to learn more about WW1.

For those who shy away from military history because of the mountain of detail, or for those who want an overview of the war, this is the book. The author by necessity includes plenty of detail--units, commanders, positions, course of battles--but the narrative moves briskly. The style is direct and terse, yet still moving. The description of the Battle of the Somme, by itself, is worth the price of the book. The author, in addition to tracing the battles on the western front, also describes the other theaters of WW I. He does not restrict himself entirely to military history, including political developments in the belligerent nations as the need arises. The military history of the war itself is preceeded by a description of the war's causes and followed by a summary of the peace settlement.

This is a very good book, especially for a more passive reader of history. It is relatively short and sticks to the major events during the war and does not get into meticulous details. The format is standardized with each chapter focusing on a particular year. The majority of each focues on the Western front but each chapter also details events on the Eastern, Italian, and Naval fronts. For anyone looking to increase their knowledge of WWI, I would recommend reading this first and if a particular event, campaign, etc. interests you, go get another book specifically written on that topic.

Before reading this book I knew very little about WWI, so it is impossible for me to judge how accurate this history is. However, Tucker seems to me to have covered pretty much all the major aspects of WWI, including the causes of the war, the political situation in the primary countries involved, the social effects of the war, the details of the peace settlement, and of course the actual fighting. To be honest, I didn't warm up to this book at first; although Tucker does a good job of keeping the action moving, I found it not to be very compelling due to a lack of detail. However, either the book started getting better or I became more used to his style; I'm not sure which. In any case, I felt that I learned a lot about this war and I gained a better appreciation for the enormous impact that this war had in shaping the history of the world in the twentieth century. Just to give one small example: the WWI peace settlement created the new nation of Yugoslavia, which forced the Serbs, Croats and Muslims to share the same nation which, in turn, resulted in a bloodbath in the 1990s. This book is definitely focused on the big picture. This is no "Day in the Life of a WWI Soldier" kind of book. The one image that did stick with me, however, was that of the British soldiers, mostly raw recruits, kicking a ball back and forth between them as they casually walked across no man's land at the Battle of the Somme. Most of them would be dead within minutes. For the most part, however, Tucker doesn't have to give details; it is easy enough to imagine the horrors of this war.

I picked this book up as it was mentioned several times as an alternative to Keegan's book on the First World War. It is, as claimed, very clipped and concise, almost too much so for me. There was so much going on in this war that I really didn't want to speed through it. However it is a good book and well recommended to anyone who wants a no nonsense accounting of what happened 1914-18.