Undertones of War

Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph

T.E. Lawrence · 714 pages

A Soldier on the Southern Front: The Classic Italian Memoir of World War 1

Emilio Lussu · 278 pages

A rediscovered Italian masterpiece chronicling the author's experience as an infantryman, newly translated and reissued to commemorate the centennial of World War I. Taking its place alongside works by Ernst JŸnger, Robert Graves, and Erich Maria Remarque, Emilio Lussu's memoir is one of the most affecting accounts to come out of the First World War. A classic in Italy but virtually unknown in the

Somme Mud

Edward P.F. Lynch · 407 pages

Private Lynch wrote 'Somme Mud' in pencil in twenty school exercise books. It vividly captures the horror and magnitude of the First World War.

Storm of Steel

Ernst Junger · 320 pages

Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900 - 1925

Vera Brittain · 661 pages

A vivid and passionate record of the years 1900 to 1925, this is Vera Brittain's haunting autobiography - a portrait of a young girl's life in prewar England and a heartbreaking document of the holocaust of war. The author tells us about the war she saw and poignantly describes how it was to watch the gradual destruction of her generation. Raised in provincial comfort during a gentle age, Britt

The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, the Oldest Surviving Veteran of the Trenches

Harry Patch, Richard van Emden · 256 pages

The extraordinary and moving story of a man whose life spanned 6 monarchs and 20 Prime Ministers. Harry Patch was the last surviving British soldier to have fought in the trenches of the First World War, one of very few people who could directly recall the horror of that conflict. In his autobiography, Harry vividly remembers his childhood in the Somerset countryside of Edwardian England. He left

Infantry Attacks

Erwin Rommel · 276 pages

"Based on his own experiences in the First World War, Rommel discusses and analyses the tactics that lay behind his success ... As a leader of a small unit, he proved himself an aggressive and versatile commander, with a reputation of using the terrain of the battleground for his own advantage, for gathering in as much intelligence on the enemy, as he could, and for seeking out and exploiting enem

The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert · 688 pages

World War One: A Short History

Norman Stone · 226 pages

World War One began on horseback, with generals employing bayonet charges to gain ground, and ended with attacks resembling the Nazi blitzkriegs. The scale of devastation was unlike anything the world had seen before: Fourteen million combatants died, a further twenty million were wounded, and four empires were destroyed. Even the victors' empires were fatally damaged. An overwhelming disaster fro

Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood

Nathan Hale · 124 pages

"World War I set the tone for the 20th century and introduced a new type of warfare: global, mechanical, and brutal. Nathan Hale has gathered some of the most fascinating true-life tales from the war and given them his inimitable Hazardous Tales twist. Easy to understand, funny, informative, and lively, this series is the best way to be introduced to some of the most well-known battles (and little

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914

Christopher Clark · 736 pages

On the morning of June 28, 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie Chotek, arrived at Sarajevo railway station, Europe was at peace. Thirty-seven days later, it was at war. The conflict that resulted would kill more than fifteen million people, destroy three empires, and permanently alter world history. The Sleepwalkers reveals in gripping detail how the crisis leading to World Wa

Silent Night: The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914

Stanley Weintraub · 168 pages

When her husband was diagnosed with leukemia, Catherine Dornan and their two young sons accompanied him to New York, during the Christmas season, for a life-saving operation. Hoping to divert the boys from worry about their father, and to temper her own near despair, on Christmas Eve Catherine takes the boys to see Rockefeller Center's famous Christmas tree. When they stop to listen to a street mu

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

G.J. Meyer · 704 pages

The First World War is one of history’s greatest tragedies. In this remarkable and intimate account, author G. J. Meyer draws on exhaustive research to bring to life the story of how the Great War reduced Europe’s mightiest empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the foundations of the world we live in today. The First World War is one of history’s greatest tragedies. In th

The Pity of War

Niall Ferguson · 585 pages

In *The Pity of War*, Niall Ferguson explodes the myths of 1914-18. He argues that the fatal conflict between Britain and Germany was far from inevitable. It was Britain's declaration of war that needlessly turned a continental conflict into a world war, and it was Britain's economic mismanagement and military inferiority that necessitated American involvement, forever altering the global balance

The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East

Eugene Rogan · 512 pages

Evaluates the impact of World War I on the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East as a whole, explaining the region's less-understood but essential contributions to the war and the establishment of present-day conflicts. In 1914 the Ottoman Empire was depleted of men and resources after years of war against Balkan nationalist and Italian forces. But as the powers of Europe slid inexorably toward war,

The First World War

Hew Strachan · 364 pages

It will soon be close to a century since the outbreak of the First World War, yet as military historian Hew Strachan argues in this brilliant and authoritative one-volume history, the legacy of the "war to end all wars" is with us still. Written in crisp, compelling prose and enlivened with vivid photographs—including early color photographs—The First World War re-creates this world-altering confl

The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War

Richard Rubin · 531 pages

In 2003, 85 years after the armistice, Rubin managed to find dozens of American veterans of World War I, aged 101 to 113, and interview them. All are gone now. They were the final survivors of the millions who made up the American Expeditionary Forces. Self-reliant, humble, and stoic, they kept their stories to themselves for a lifetime, then shared them at the last possible moment, so that they,

The Great War: 1914-1918

Peter Hart · 576 pages

Named one of the Ten Best Books of 2013 by The Economist ,World War I altered the landscape of the modern world in every conceivable arena. Millions died; empires collapsed; new ideologies and political movements arose; poison gas, warplanes, tanks, submarines, and other technologies appeared. -Total war- emerged as a grim, mature reality. In The Great War, Peter Hart provides a masterful combat

Eye-Deep In Hell: Trench Warfare In World War I

John Ellis · 215 pages

A detailed reconstruction of life and death in the trenches of World War I, describing the construction and physical and spiritual environment of the trenches and the soldiers' daily routine.

To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918

Adam Hochschild · 448 pages

World War I stands as one of history's most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. In his riveting narrative, Hochschild brings it to life as never before while focusing on the long-ignored moral drama of the war's critics, alongside its generals and heroes.

Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War

Max Hastings · 628 pages

From the acclaimed military historian, a new history of the outbreak of World War I: the dramatic stretch from the breakdown of diplomacy to the battles -- the Marne, Ypres, Tannenberg -- that marked the frenzied first year before the war bogged down in the trenches. In Catastrophe 1914, Max Hastings gives us a conflict different from the familiar one of barbed wire, mud and futility. He traces th

Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918

Joseph E. Persico · 496 pages

The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916

Alistair Horne · 364 pages

Gallipoli

Alan Moorehead · 384 pages

When Turkey unexpectedly sided with Germany in World War I, Winston Churchill, as Sea Lord for the British, conceived a plan: smash through the Dardanelles, reopen the Straits to Russia, and immobilize the Turks. On the night of March 18, 1915, this plan nearly succeeded -- the Turks were virtually beaten. But poor communication left the Allies in the dark, allowing the Turks to prevail and the Al