World War One: A Short History

This is a great "read": the reviews that describe it as surprisingly chock full of information, given its narrative grace and its length, are right on target. Simon Prebble does a good job presenting the narrative. You won't find a more comprehensive four-and-a-half hour account anywhere. Overall, very satisfying. The one thing missing are the maps. Maybe it's just me, but I can't read (or listen to) a description of a battle without looking at a map. Fortunately atlases of World War One are easy to come by, and I recommend having one at hand for this.

I've read dozens of books about WWII and the Civil War, and still have only scratched the surface of those two great conflicts. There are practically no audiobooks regarding the first World War. I liked that this book was short, and found the narration absolutely perfect. You will not come away from it knowing what Franz Ferdinand's favorite fruit was, but you'll at least understand the basics of this conflict and a bit about all the mistakes everyone made. Don't get this book looking for depth, but you get what you get with 4 hours of audio. This is a great book for exactly what is intended- an overview, a timeline, and the parties involved.

At a bit over four hours, this is a short introduction to the First World War but it's surprisingly comprehensive, giving an excellent and well-rounded view of almost every facet of the Great War. Particularly interesting was the opening chapter on the complex chain of circumstances leading up to the war- listening to it one gets the impression that at the end of the long 19th Century everyone in Europe was trapped in a strange web of politics and economics making the war almost inevitable. Well narrated and easy to follow.

As a student of history, the First World War is my favorite topic. Norman Stone is an excellent historical scholar on this topic. His book "The Eastern Front" (not available in audio) which discusses the Eastern Front in World War One is a bible for people like me. This book provides an excellent concise overview of the war in a very well written and organized volume. If you have never listened to any books regarding the topic and want to understand this period in history, this book is where you should start. There are some small historical errors but these do not detract from the narration and content. Overall a great addition to the Audible Library

A very short summary of WW1, with emphasis on the battles. I'd guess that it's fine for listeners who already have some background, but I found it hard to follow. As one reviewer already wrote, you need a map to make the account coherent. The book is more suitable as a quick review for those who've already studied the war than as an introduction to it.

Simon Prebble is, as always, a satisfying narrator.

I was looking for a synopsis of World War I to fill a lot of gaps in my knowledge and happened upon this Audible version. It's probably a 4-star or 5-star book as such, but without the maps of the print edition and without being able to see the spelling of people's and places' names, the Audible version is extremely hard to follow. The writing however is very good and I'm buying the print edition now so that I can get more out of it.

I did not finish this audio book for it was dry and to hard to follow. It seemed more like reference material.