Customer Reviews

The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War

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

 

 

Let me add a disclaimer to this review, I am only moderately interested in the First World War and was hoping to get an easy to read and complete history of the conflict to aid my understanding. I thought this would be a good book to accomplish this task and cover the basics. What I found was that I had made a mistake. The book is a collection of essays written by some very competent and well thought of British historians. It appeared to me that each of them was very familiar with the topic chosen and the essays really were good, well thought out and written documents. The issue I had is that I was looking for more of a overview of the war, these essays left a lot of the basic information out, thus many times I felt that I was not getting the full story or even that I was lost.

I also have a hang up with books that are written in this method - a different author does each chapter. I tend to be bothered by the different writing styles and sometimes not complete follow through of the subject / topic. With these statements made, the book is a well-written document on the war. The illustrations are very interesting and bring a good deal of life to the topic. The editor places the pictures and illustrations though out the book. I found the chapters on the Eastern / Western fronts and the entry of the American's to be the most interesting.

So if you are like me with a marginal interest in the war and are looking for a well-written overview this is not the book for you. But if you are a WW 1 history buff then you will probably get a lot of enjoyment out of this book and you should disregard my review.

The essays dealing with economics were excellent. The writers pointed out that the US was holding much of the allies' treasury bills, especially England's; in fact, the Federal Reserve Board warned US banks in 1918 of holding too many of the Allies' securites. The discussion on the peace negotiations and treaties was also excellent, pointing out the problem was not placing harsh terms on the Germans, but not enforcing the treaty. The writers also correctly linked both World Wars together into a 30 year war, and pointed out that Germany never accepted that it had lost the War. I also agreed with the book's premise that the US retreating into isolationism was the first domino sending the world to the 2nd world war. They logically portrayed how the belligerents' ending positioned set up World War II.

I bought this book because I was hoping for more of a overview of WWI. I've read a lot about WWII and always have found it useful to read something general first, then identify the elements you found really intersting and go buy a focused book on those aspects.

This is not really a beginers overview at all. It is a collection of writings by some apparantly well qualified scholars. Some parts are still very interesting from a beginers point of view, but the fact that it isn't really chronological is a little annoying. There is a chapter on the Central Powers strategy, a chapter on the war on the western front, a chapter on the effect on women, a chapter on the economic impact of the war, etc.

I think it is probably a really good book, it is just a tad advanced for a beginner like me. I probably should have paid more attention before buying it.

One other minor complaint is that that although the book has a ton of pictures (which is good), the captions are not great. For example, there will be a picture of 8 people standing there and the caption will tell you that one is an Italian general, who is talking to his king, but it won't tell you who is who (e.g. the King is the 3rd from the left). You just kinda have to guess who is who based on how old/important they look.

Good book. I needed it for a class on the Great War. This book is the best (except for Tuchman's the Guns of August) I've read so far about WWI. There are plenty of color pictures and it was easy to read.

I was searching for numerous days to find a book about all the different countries sides of view, on all the battles, on all the diplomacy and i have finnaly found such a book.The first WOrld war gave me not only a great history of the war but it also gave me a great description of real-life stories. I also would recomend this book to students who are studying World War 1. This book rates as one of my faavorite history books ever. ALong with Complete idiots guide to World WAr 2. Hew Strachan is one of the greatest historic authors of all time and at of all his books this is my favorite. THis book has great discriptions of strategy and weaponry as well and the thoughts of different people after the devestating war. PLease read this fantastic book!

This book does a horrible job of documenting the history of World War I. It has multiple errors, and none of the authors cite any of the works that their essays were developed from, or provide evidence to support their conclusions. There is a selection of works for further reading but there is not a works cited, or footnotes. The problem with this work is that someone who picks up this book to learn about World War I is going to get a lot of poor information, and information that is completely wrong. For a book that carries the tag of Oxford, this is unexceptable. Do not purchase this book, there are many more books out there that properly cite their research and comprehensively explore the causes and effects of the events of World War I.

The essays in this book are excellent. Writen by some of the greatest historians, of the First World War.

This is one of the best books I've read about WW1. I have an extensive library, of books on WW1. I own well over 100 volumes.

The essays in this book are excellent. Writen by some of the greatest historians, of the First World War.