Customer Reviews

A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

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2 star:		(4)
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The causes of World War I were so diverse and complex, and the military strategies so intricate, that the war becomes a historian's ultimate dilemma: Write about it comprehensively and lose all but the most earnest readers, or skim the surface and don't do it justice? Mr. Meyer has found the perfect balance and tone to describe a war that was complicated, not at all glorious, and a proximate or ancillary cause of every major trouble the world has seen since. His journalistic skills serve the reader with startling immediacy, never forgetting to include the human effects of the war, so that rather than becoming an endless parade of statistics, the book is a riveting parable about a four-year train wreck of human miscalculation and arrogance in leadership, balanced by unbelievable heroism in the ranks. As I write this, the American nation is still embroiled in a seven year war in Iraq and Afghanistan that has killed 5,000 American soldiers so far. That was a typical DAY in World War I. Our modern 24 hour cable news cycle will (thankfully) just not permit the kind of carnage that the generals in World War I so casually created. Also of great interest are Mr. Meyer's short background articles, on subjects like Kaiser Wilhelm, the Junkers, the Cossacks, etc, which give the reader a real grounding in the flavor of the times, and are fascinating in their own right.

Our leaders today are, like Tom Brokaw, agog over World War II, and the generation that won it. A shame. The war they really need to take lessons from is World War I, and Meyer's book is what they should read. This book is a triumph of history with the narrative pace of a novel. Don't miss it.

I suggest readers who want to go deeper into World War I book-end this volume with The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, and Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World, by Margaret Macmillan.

Thousands of books have been written about the Great War; volumes both large and small covering every aspect of the war exist. For new readers, however, there are very few books that provide a detailed overview of the Great War with sufficient explanation to understand the historical, social, cultural, and ethnic threads that made this war so destructive. Keenan and Strachan have both provided excellent works that appeal to the more learned student of history, and now G.J. Meyer offers A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918, that offers an excellent overview of the War to anyone with an interest in the subject.

At just over 650 pages, the book reads smoothly and quickly. Meyer writes with a simple elegance, his words crisp with detail and easy to grasp. This is due in large part to his background as a journalist rather than a professional historian. The book's chapters structure lends well to his overall theme of understanding the war through gaining knowledge on its background. Each of the 36 chapters of detail are supported by a corresponding chapter of background information. For example, the book opens with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip and the subsequent events between Austrio-Hungary and Serbia. To accompany this chapter, Meyer offers background on the Serbs. The combination works very well throughout the book, and sheds light on some topics other authors move quickly over.

Meyer states in his introduction that he wanted to show "how the many elements that made up the Great War affected one another and deepened the disaster...I {sic} hope it captures at least some of the multidimensional richness of one of the most epic tragedies in the history of the world." Mr. Meyer, you have succeeded in your goal. This is an excellent book that will interest many, and can serve as a wonderful starting point for the discovery of specific interests within the Great War's vast history. Highly Recommended.

A.G. Corwin
St.Louis, MO

If only every history book was written by G.J. Meyer! 'A World Undone' is a fantastic read; I could not have imagined a single book could paint such a thorough picture of the Great War. I could not put this book down.
I have read other volumes, including 'The First World War', 'The Guns of August', even 'World War One For Dummies'! But this is the absolute best of the lot, providing background history on the major players and combatants, and numerous glimpses into the personal lives of the leaders and soldiers of the day. It is these 'background essays' that make this history so much more enjoyable, so much more readable, that I was very disappointed when I came to the end. Most history books leave you needing a break, but 'A World Undone' left me wishing for a second volume.

In his introduction, the author states "It has long seemed to me that practically all popular histories of the Great War assume too much, expect too much of the reader, and therefore leave too much unexplained."
He further states, "My final objective, and not the least of my objectives, has been to offer this story in the most readable form possible and thereby to do justice to its inherent drama." The author has more than meet his goals here, much more. This is one of the most readable accounts of the First World War I have read (and there have been many, many of those). The author's style is smooth, his research very accurate and detailed and he has been able to cram a surprisingly large amount of information in to a relatively small volume (small when compaired to many others now setting on my shelf). The author examens the root causes of the war and addresses this complex situation quite well in a comprehensive manner. For those of you that are familiar with the situation or situations that exsisted at that time, you will know that is is no easy matter! The author has followed developments step by step and organized his material in a way that is actually easy to follow and is far from boring. Even though the author does use body counts and statistics throughout the book, he pulls this off in a way that you actually understand the horror of the situation, what price the people paid then, and what price we are still paying to this very day. Now I will admit that there are many books out there with more detail...for goodness sakes, there are volumes and volumes written about each and every single battle in this conflict that started in 1914 and did not end until 1918. This is probably one of the most written about events in human history. But dispite those many tombs, few, if any, clarify the situations such as this author has done. For those interest in further study, more details, more statistics, there are certainly a lot of fields out there to plow. I have to agree with the reviewer that stated that if you only read one book on this war, this would be the one you should choose. I also like the way the illustrations, photos and maps were spread throughout the book rather than into one, two or there sections. I highly recommend this work and further recommend you add it to your library as you will no doubt want to give it a reread at a later date. Thank you Mr. Meyer!

The first chapter of the book "A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918" by G.J. Meyer begins with a detailed narrative of that fateful date in Sarejevo when an Austrian archduke and his wife are gunned down by a nineteen year-old Serbian nationalist. I was alarmed when I realized that this entire chapter was strikingly identical to the first chapter of Edmond Taylor's "The Fall of the Dynasties, 1905-1922", which is one of my favorite but an oft-overlooked work of the time period. Thus, I was not surprised when I turned to Meyer's bibliography and found Taylor's work cited as a source for this chapter. At that point, I was fearful that "A World Undone" was going to be nothing more than a pitiful mashing of previous historical works relating to the time period (similar to Joseph Persico's "Eleventh Hour, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Month.")

Despite the frequency of texts throughout Meyer's book with stark similarity to existing literature, "A World Undone" does have several redeeming qualities. The author does provide some analyses that deviate from the status quo, such as depicting Moltke the younger as the executor of an impossibly doomed Schleiffen Plan rather than the meddler who transformed an intrinsic path towards victory into defeat. Meyer also balances the traditional views of the Great War with contemporary accounts that have emerged in the last decade, such as his acknowledgement of the Entente's self-delusion that Germany's casualties were substantially greater than their own, when in fact the opposite was true (as cited by John Mosier's "The Myth of the Great War").

In spite of the original analyses and acceptance of theses from contemporary historians, no quality of Meyer's book distinguishes it more than the fact that it is an overview of the entire Great War written not as a study but as a story. The Great War already has some great studies of the war, such as works by A.J.P. Taylor or a recent one by John Keegan, but Meyer manages to retell the events of the Great War as they occurred without completely seperating them from the happenings occuring on other fronts or other theaters at the time. Studies of the Great War may note that the Battle of the Somme began and ended while the latter half of the Battle of Verdun was raging, but such works usually discuss them individually and thus extract them from other occurances at the time period. In Meyer's account, however, it is much easier for the reader to perceive that the fighting in the Somme, at Verdun, or in Galicia occurred simultaneously in 1916 rather than individually.

For novices on the subject of the Great War, Meyer's "Background" sections to subjects relating to the Great War add a significant amount of depth to the conflict. However, I was disappointed that "A World Undone" gave little more than a passing mention to battles beyond Europe or the Middle East, such as ignoring the successful resistance of Lettow-Vorbeck's askari soldiers in German East Africa beyond the armistice. Indeed, the ommission or bare-mention of the fighting in Africa, Asia, and on the seas beyond Europe may cause those new to the subject to wonder if the Great War was indeed a "world war" or nothing more than a massive European calamity.

Furthermore, I found past classical works relating to the war (e.g. Tuchman's "The Guns Of August", Hornes' "The Price of Glory", Taylor's "The Fall of the Dynasties"--all cited by Meyer) to be generally more eloquently written (but often less broad in scope), while the analyses provided by AJP Taylor and John Keegan in their respective works to be more thorough.

Although "A World Undone" is not the definitive work of the war that has produced some our best nonfiction and fiction literature, it should by no means be ignored by students of that conflict.

I just completed reading G.J. Meyer's book "A World Undone: The Great War 1914-1918". And I highly recommend it to anyone who would like a better understanding of World War I. It is a well written and concise but detailed narrative history of the war. The book does an excellent job of pulling together all the fronts and the political wrangling that lead to the blood spilled. Between the chapters dealing with the major battles, there are short chapters dedicated to the main characters of the war that fill you in on their background to help you better understand their decisions and the creeping madness that eventually afflicted all of them.

In a sense, the world was at war much longer than just the 4 years between 1914 and 1918. The start of World War I was the result of European conflicts deeply rooted in the areas in which the war was fought. The Balkan Wars of 1912, the Hapsburg Empire's annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908 and the Franco-Prussian wars of the 19th century all played a part in bringing about the First World War.

The people of Europe cheered as the war began. This was the time to right old wrongs, to regain territories and honor taken away through previous conflicts. No one expected the war to last very long. No one thought the slaughter would be on a scale unheard of in all of history. Every European believed that victory was imperative and were told by government propaganda machines the enemy wanted nothing less than the total destruction of their homeland and that to try for peace was to commit national suicide. As their men marched off to war excitement was high and victory expected in every country.

As for the war itself, it was madness. Millions of men, standing in fetid conditions taking the pounding punishment of artillery barrages and sniper fire day after day for four years is an unimaginable hell. We get squeamish at the thought of a few thousand killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The soldiers of World War I faced HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS killed during every new offensive of the war. Wave after wave of men were hurled at positions so strongly defended as to be impregnable. The results were (of course) always catastrophic.

In the end, there were 9.8 million military deaths and the seeds of the next "great war" were sown as Germany surrendered without a single enemy having set foot on home soil.

Worldwide there are only 3 confirmed Veteran's of World War I left alive. Three more soldiers to go and then this war will have passed irretrievably into history's fog like all other wars before it.

I would recommend reading this book to anyone who is looking to get a grasp on this war. 5 Stars.

During a recent trip to rural France, I was struck by the fact that every town, however small, had a stone memorial to its WWI dead, each with many names enscribed. There is a reason for that and the reason is clearly explained in this book. As you read "A World Undone", at first you are struck by the tremendous numbers of dead and wounded in each battle; 27 thousand killed here, 18 thousand there. The carnage was unbeliveable.
Why did this happen? The author makes this clear in many ways, sorting out a complex situation and laying out the elements of unspeakable diaster. If you read one book on WWI, this should be it.
The causes of the conflict have always been obscure and complex, but this book explains the pre-war situation well and the forces, seemingly beyond control, that lead to the unstoppable clash of countries that were more alike each other than they were different.
I do have a few gripes. The war in the air is given short mention. The submarine campaign gets more coverage, but not by much. These two aspects of the war were not key to the outcome, but were important as they led to use of subs and aircraft in WWII, which were decisive.
Another element missing is the motivation of the foot soldiers, who did most of the dying. What caused them to hurl themselves against impregnable defenses again and again for no gain?
All in all, a very logical, lucid account of a war with was anything but.

This is an excellent book that tells the story of the "Great War" - the war that changed much of the world from what it was to what it is today. The author does a fine job of laying out that story. I especially liked the background sections that provided context behind what led to the events that started this war. More than any other book, this one lays the climactic events of this war and the impact - in Western Europe (the lead to World War II), in Russia (the Cold War), in the Middle East (Israel, Palestine, Iraq), and in Eastern Europe (Balkans). After reading the first chapters, I came to the recognition that August, 1914 was probably the most climactic month in the history of the modern world. The change that it caused is being felt even to today. For this reason alone, I recommend this book not only to history buffs but to all to better understand the reasons why.

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You think of the thousands of books written about The First World War and wonder, "Could anyone possibly have anything new to say about the subject?".

The answer is 'yes'. Meyer's book is refreshing.

The best parts of this book are the short 'Background' pieces that end each chapter. It adds an depth of understanding about the war in short (3-4 pages) bites. If you want to get a good taste of this book, turn to page 419 and read the four page background piece, 'Consuming The Future'. Meyer spells out in a language anyone can understand how the First World War destroyed the economies of all the European powers.

Not only the best WWI book I've read, but one of the best books on any subject I've read in the past 5 years.



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Absolutely outstanding.

This book, unlike the myriad others that I have read on the subject--with some being quite good themselves--endeavors to explain the what and why. What was in their heads, and why they did the things they did. My only, exceedingly minor complaint is that the book doesn't dig very far into the head of the common man of the time without whose support, nothing could've happened.

That aside, my admiration for G.J. Meyer's accomplishment is without boundaries. He's taken one of the most complex events in human history and shed light on it like no other author that I know of. The insights and brief histories of all the participants are invaluable in understanding of the conditions and political climate that led to the European catastrophe. Even if you're not interested in the subject, the first 150 pages are startlingly relevant in today's world.

I sincerely hope that Mr. Meyer will do the world a favor and tackle some of the other tough nuts of history.