The First World War

A Complete History

De: Martin Gilbert

Narrado por: Roger Clark

It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would officially end nearly five years later. Unofficially, however, it has never ended: Many of the horrors we live with today are rooted in the First World War.

The Great War left millions of civilians and soldiers maimed or dead. It also saw the creation of new technologies of destruction: tanks, planes, and submarines; machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare. It introduced U-boat packs and strategic bombing, unrestricted war on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners. But the war changed our world in far more fundamental ways than these.

In its wake, empires toppled, monarchies fell, and whole populations lost their national identities. As political systems and geographic boundaries were realigned, the social order shifted seismically. Manners and cultural norms; literature and the arts; education and class distinctions; all underwent a vast sea change.

©1994 Martin Gilbert (P)2020 Tantor

The stupidity of government leaders. Tragic

Tragic senseless war that in the end set stage for WWll. Would have liked to hear more about strategy and politics involved in management of war.

Outstanding

Martin Gilbert provides a treasure trove of stories & information on this horrific war. This truly is about as complete as any single volume history of WW1 can be. Loved it!

WWI was a fascinating read

My 102 year old Dad found it thoroughly interesting. We both learned so much about WWI that we had not known before. For folks who like his to, t is an excellent read.

Thoroughly explained.

Undoubtedly the most thorough accounting of WW1 ever put to paper. Can be tedious at times but well done nonetheless.

VERY comprehensive and compelling

interesting, kept my attention and made me realize how complicated the 1st WW was. good book!

Very Broad Narrative

Martin Gilbert has written a VERY sweeping narrative of World War I. It truly is a complete history. So complete that it is very hard to keep up with. I found myself rewinding as much as keeping up with the action. This is not to detract from the fact that it is very good. But given the scope, reading it might be easier than listening so that one can follow precisely. The problem is the constant switching from east to west, to Mesopotamia, Russia, and then back again all in the same chapter without any indication of an about face. Momentary distraction leads to a need to go rewind and rewind again. And the mention of mud...goodness. It's mentioned so often that one would think that's the only focus of the book. But again, this was deemed a complete history and so it is. Roger Clark is excellent as always.

I found this book to be very informative about WWI

I found this book very informative about the preyloud to WWII also great book

A good long read

I liked it a lot. The book goes in to the thoughts and feelings of the leaders, the soldiers, and the everyday citizen of the time. As well as covering the events really well .

Good Listen

This book was so good for me. It seamlessly described events and reasons for actions in a chronological order. Narrator was great.

A comprehensive and human history of WWI.

A comprehensive and human history of WWI.

There are no shortage of histories of WWI but Gilbert's 1994 history does an admirable job of covering all the major and minor theaters of war as well as the political machinations that fed into the belligerent's decision making. What sets Gilbert apart is both his solid writing and his grounding of the narrative with the human cost of the war. Frequent excerpts from letters home, poems, and other writings by Soldiers on both fronts helps give the narrative a tragic element as in nearly every case, the author of the piece quoted by Gilbert is killed shortly thereafter.

While comprehensive on the military and political fronts insofar as it directly impacts military decision making, Gilbert does not go into great depth on the domestic politics of the belligerents except for Russia -- understandable given the narrative focus. It's a minor quibble, and had he done so, the book would have run into multi-volume territory.

In addition to the human element, what's striking in the history is how frequently smaller "neutral" nations would decide to enter the war on one side or the other on the promise (rarely kept) to expand/gain territory once the war was over. It's been said that war crystalizes the human experience by bringing everything into sharper focus, and Gilbert's compelling history does a fine job presenting that. The constant push/pull between the honorable and the selfish at both the individual and national level makes for an outstanding single volume history.