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The First World War (Paperback)

by John Keegan (Author)

3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (145 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Vintage Canada; 1 edition (Jun 13 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0676972241
ISBN-13: 978-0676972245
Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.3 x 2.6 cm
Shipping Weight: 490 g

Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (145 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #4,927 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#92 in Books > History > Military

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

Despite the avalanche of books written about the First World War in recent years, there have been comparatively few books that deliver a comprehensive account of the war and its campaigns from start to finish. The First World War fills the gap superbly. As readers familiar with Keegan's previous books (including The Second World War and Six Armies in Normandy) know, he's a historian of the old school. He has no earth-shattering new theories to challenge the status quo, no first-person accounts to tug on the emotions--what he does have, though, is a gift for talking the lay person through the twists and turns of a complex narrative in a way that is never less than accessible or engaging.

Keegan never tries to ram his learning down your throat. Where other authors have struggled to explain how Britain could ever allow itself to be dragged into such a war in 1914, Keegan keeps his account practical. The level of communications that we enjoy today just didn't exist then, and so it was much harder to keep track of what was going on. By the time a message had finally reached the person in question, the situation may have changed out of all recognition. Keegan applies this same "cock-up" theory of history to the rest of the war, principally the three great disasters at Gallipoli, the Somme, and Passchendaele. The generals didn't send all those troops to their deaths deliberately, Keegan argues; they did it out of incompetence and ineptitude, and because they had no idea of what was actually going on at the front.

While The First World War is not afraid to point the finger at those generals who deserve it, even Keegan has to admit he doesn't have all the answers. If it all seems so obviously futile and such a massive waste of life now, he asks, how could it have seemed worthwhile back then? Why did so many people carry on, knowing they would die? Why, indeed. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

In a riveting narrative that puts diaries, letters and action reports to good use, British military historian Keegan (The Face of Battle, etc.) delivers a stunningly vivid history of the Great War. He is equally at easeAand equally generous and sympatheticAprobing the hearts and minds of lowly soldiers in the trenches or examining the thoughts and motivations of leaders (such as Joffre, Haig and Hindenburg) who directed the maelstrom. In the end, Keegan leaves us with a brilliant, panoramic portrait of an epic struggle that was at once noble and futile, world-shaking and pathetic. The war was unnecessary, Keegan writes, because the train of events that led to it could have been derailed at any time, "had prudence or common goodwill found a voice." And it was tragic, consigning 10 million to their graves, destroying "the benevolent and optimistic culture" of Europe and sowing the seeds of WWII. While Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War (Forecasts, Mar. 8) offers a revisionist, economic interpretation of the causes of WWI, Keegan stands impressively mute before the unanswerable question he poses: "Why did a prosperous continent, at the height of its success as a source and agent of global wealth and power and at one of the peaks of its intellectual and cultural achievement, choose to risk all it had won for itself and all it offered to the world in the lottery of a vicious and local internecine conflict?" Photos not seen by PW. 75,000-copy first printing; simultaneous Random House audio. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

145 Reviews

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(10)

Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (145 customer reviews)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best, Dec 11 2001

By	Schmerguls "schmerguls" (Sioux City, Ia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First World War (Hardcover)

When this book first became available I did not read it because I had read, on July 22, 1995, Martin Gilbert's The First World War: A Complete History, which I liked a lot and which I thought made it unnecessary to read Keegan's book. But no one interested in World War I should omit reading this and I now have and I have found it eminently well worth reading. I think it is more felicitously written than is Gilbert's book, with a surer grasp of the topic and one is bowled over anew by the epic things Keegan points out. I suppose I have read maybe 100 books on the First World War, but this is one not to be omitted regardless of how much one has read in the area.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Overview of the Great War, Oct 28 2008

By	Patrick Sullivan (Kingston, Ont. Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The First World War (Hardcover)

I thought this was a well done general overview of the Great War. The one area I had a large disagreement with, was the Battle of the Somme. Keegan concludes that Haig was more or less doing the best he could. The results could not have been any better. It`s been almost 100 years since The Somme,and I think most people would agree it was disaster. The high command completely ignored their own junior officers reports, that the barrage had not destroyed the German line. Perhaps in another 100 years the British will be able to admit it was a fiasco. In comparison the German failure at Verdun, at least led to the commander being fired.
Keegan also had a minor mistake, regarding the first German gas attack at Ypres. He stated the Canadian troops used water soaked rags to protect themselves from the poison gas. They did not use water.
I would give this book a thumbs up, but you will run into some areas of disagreement.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not enough maps, Feb 12 2002

By A Customer

Keegan does a great job discussing the series of events leading up to the outbreak of the war. Once the war starts, though, it's hard to follow the action since there are too few maps. He discusses in detail where battles occur and enemy objectives in terms of locales. These places, are often not included on the few maps provided. The maps that are included are very general and only pertain to a small portion of the writing. I found myself trying to follow along using a world atlas. This was limiting since the action often takes place in and around small European towns that he seems to think we're familiar with.

Another point I didn't like: Keegan fails to convey the intesity and desperation of the battles of which he writes. Rather, he looks at the action from the genral's point of view which is sanitized and objective. For example, he often gets bogged down with recounting division and battalion movements in terms of ground gained or lost or casualities incurred. The German third army moved here or the French fourth division of the sixth army went there after losing to the German second army, etc. I would have liked a more descriptive account of the engagements and some picture of the events as they happened from a soldier's point of view.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars This is NOT the way to learn about history!
This review is on the audio cd version of the book. The author, John Keegan, goes into to way too much miltary detail to make anything in this book interesting. Read more

Published on Jun 26 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars The Short Version
This is a review of the Audio Cassette abridged version of Keegan's masterwork history of the First World War. Read more

Published on Feb 1 2004 by tranq45

5.0 out of 5 stars First lucid and complete narrative of WHY WW1 happened
I find that it is very difficult to find any comprehensive books on the 1st world war. This is the first book I have found that gave me a good understanding of that first... Read more

Published on April 11 2002 by Janet Maffei

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great.
I had to read this for school and I found that it was informative but dull. Helpful for learning but not enjoyable.

Published on Mar 4 2002