World War One: History in an Hour

By: Rupert Colley

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Length: 1 hr and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

History for busy people. Listen to a concise history of World War One in just one hour. World War One brought with it the world’s first experience of Total War, involving all of the world’s great powers, polarized between the Triple Entente, led by Britain, France and Russia, and the Central Powers, dominated by Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary. Around nine million men lost their lives in a conflict that introduced the horrors of trench warfare, machine guns, and toxic gas attacks.

World War One: History In an Hour gives you a clear overview of the road to war, the major turning points and battles, and the key leaders involved, as well as the lasting impact the Great War had on almost every country in the world. World War One: History In an Hour is essential listening for all history lovers.

©2012 Rupert Colley (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic Reviews

"If the past is a foreign country, History in an Hour is like a high-class tour operator, offering delightfully enjoyable short breaks in the rich and diverse continent of our shared past" (Dominic Sandbrook)

"The practice of History is ever-evolving, and the History In An Hour idea brings it back up to date for the digital age." (Andrew Roberts, Bookseller)

"This is genius." (MacWorld.com)

Concise review

This provides a good overview of the major events of WWI.

Obviously, one can not go into detail in an hour when covering such an important and well documented chapter of world history. The author does a good job of progressing from event to event without editorializing or engaging in "what if?" questions.

It is a nice refresher of the major players and events from the war to end all wars.

Good introduction or refresher

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It is an hour well spent brushing up on the basic timelines of WW1. There are a few interesting back stories of the main events and it covers it well. It would be a good introduction to the story of the Great War and is well told.
However it is not meant to be a thorough book - it brushes over most of the main points. I have a bookshelf of WW1 books and this skims the surface but it is worth a read especially if you don't know much about the war.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Archduke Franz Ferdinand???!

Good summation

Short and concise summary. It is a good review of the main elements and events

Interesting

This book was a nice, short, quick history lesson. I needed to brush up on my WW1 knowledge and this definitely helped!

good overall view

Provided interesting and useful details. would like the writer to do the same with other moments in our history, and everything end highlight people that made a difference, good or bad.

Concise!

Short but sweet this is a well put together look at a multi faceted war.

good and concise

well written, concise, we'll put together and easy to follow. there were tidbits of history I'd always known about but never quite knew where they coincided with other events. this 1 he history did all that for me while remaining on task.

Excellent summary; short, well written & read

I have both Kindle and Audible versions, and this review is for both. This book is - obviously - a summary, not a detailed history. It is only 100 pages to cover the four years of the war, from the Archduke's assassination to the aftermath, so of course it does not go into great detail for WWI buffs. But if you, like me, have some knowledge but want a quick overview to tie it all together, this does that perfectly. I learned many things that I didn't know or was confused about. Author Rupert Colley - who has a long series of these History in One Hour books - does a very concise job. He is English and so, yes, he has an English/Allies point of view, though there are interesting tidbits from the German and Russian view sprinkled in. There's little time for more. The Kindle version has a photo every 2-4 pages, so maybe 2-3 dozen. Most are portraits, but there are also some of things like planes, ships or women in armament factories. (You can easily enlarge tiny Kindle photos with your fingers on most devices.) The Audible reader, English actor Jonathan Keeble, has done many of these and other audios. He has a very clear, easy to listen to and understand voice, with a mild English accent. He does just the right amount of voice drama (he's good with irony) and accents without being distracting or attention getting. The Audible book is 82 minutes, so more than an hour. I have since bought others in the series.

Full of emotional claims, lack of facts

I cannot even finish the 1st chapter, the book is so poorly written. Full of emotional claims, and seriously lack of supporting details such as statistics.

Not bad

Of these I’ve listened to, this is the best. Doesn’t mean it’s particularly good, but listenable

An hour well spent

Excellent overview of key issues providing context to the conflict. We listened to this before visiting First World War sites in Belgium.
Recommended

A worthwhile listen.

An amazing short look at a long and horrific, but still very interesting time in human history.

Jonathan Keeble is excellent

I enjoyed this book. Well paced and informative. Keeble is excellent as narrator in all the ‘History in an Hour’ series.

Well worth it

Brilliant summing up of the major parts of WW1 well worth it at this price and an hour well spent

World War 1 in an hour

Very good book i enjoyed it very much, to have all the important information about how and why it broke out was good and if I had a younger child who was doing a essay on WW1 I would use the book as a reference

History in an hour

I enjoyed this very much very quick and detailed regarding the events of World War One.

Concise review of WWI

A good summary for those wanting an overview of WWI. Creates a foundation for further reading

A poor overview

An outdated View which perpetuates the view that the FWW was futile. Using emotive language to describe factual events. Poor.

Bite size history

Great concentrated history in a well read format, easy to understand without all the overly complex political machinations, should be taught in schools today to serve as a reminder of what happened.

Does what it says on the tin.

I'm not a historian but had a fair knowledge of WW1. This gives a good overview but skips some of the potential controversies (Was the Lucitania civilian? Was the Mexico memo planted? etc.) that I had heard elsewhere. However, parts like the Paris taxis I had never heard of.

I do get a bit annoyed that the general recounting moves chronologically but in fact the specifics are done nationally or geographically. It can be strange to go from the story of Paris 1914-1917 to America 1915 (not accurate figures). Not sure how else it could be done though...

Overall for the cost and the quality of the narrating voice I would say this is worth a listen. If you find bits interesting and want more depth then pursue them in other books.