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The First World War: An Illustrated History
£10.40£12.30 (-15%)
A. J. P. Taylor was one of the most acclaimed and uncompromising historians of the twentieth century. In this clear, lively and now-classic account of the First World War, he tells the story of the conflict from the German advance in the West, through the Marne, Gallipoli, the Balkans and the War at Sea to the offensives of 1918 and the state of Europe after the war. Containing photographs and maps, this an essential history of the war that ‘cut deep into the consciousness of modern man’.
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Additional information
| Publisher | New Impression edition (28 Mar. 1974), Penguin |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 296 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0140024816 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0140024814 |
| Dimensions | 22 x 15 x 2.5 cm |
by Roman Gronkowski
To the point style, paced well and excellent general introduction to the major events of the First World War.
by Amazon Customer
This is a present for my brother in law and I feel it was a little shabby .
by M
The narrative in this book is well written, pacy and enjoyable. It is clear that there is opinion (and some humour) in there but that is what makes it readable.
For the Kindle version the pictures don’t really work. The formating is poor and many of the pictures are missing (just their captions are visible). Because of the quality of the photographs the Kindle’s screen struggles to give more than an impression of what they look like.
But that doesn’t detract from the quality of the text which is worth the money.
by OxfordStudent
I thought it would be up to the standard of his WW2 work. It wasn’t.
by David I. Howells
A. J. P. Taylor was one of the most acclaimed and controversial historians of the twentieth century. Here he writes a classic account of the first World War from the German invasion of France via Belgium and the resulting stagnant trench warfare on the Western front to the Russian disasters on the Eastern front. He also covers Gallipoli, the Balkans and the war at sea along with every other major campaign during the war. He amply covers the apparent senseless slaughter of the trenches and employs the traditional viewpoint of senseless generals sending brave men to their deaths in their hundreds of thousands. It is more than a military history book however as Taylor also analyses the political and social history of the main protagonists in great detail. Far from just covering the war from the perspective of the great loss of human life it becomes more of an analysis of the concept of total war and social change in the first truly industrial global war.
Taylor’s book has attained quite a scholarly following in history circles. It is well researched, very accurate in detail and well written. His viewpoints are quite thought provoking but they do mirror quite accurately the viewpoints of modern historians. Some may disagree with this comment but after doing a modern history degree three years ago, the subject matter I read for this period did not detract that much from Taylor’s viewpoints. I was actually surprised to find this so seeing as the book is around thirty plus years old and if there was a conflict of detail between Taylor’s book and my course material then it certainly provoked a stimulating but often inconclusive debate!
I would say that overall Taylor’s book is a classic of its time; it’s a great read full of interesting detail about all aspects of the First World War I enjoyed it immensely but I would point out that you would be best put to read other history books covering this period for a better comparative understanding of the period.
by Mike
Found this book to be a great start in understanding WW1, however I could only give a four star rating due to the low resolution of the maps. When you are trying to explain troop movements and changes in the different theatres of war it becomes very frustrating when the map you are presented with becomes a fuzzy blur and place names and legends become illegible. On the plus side I could get around this using the highlight function on the kindle fire to search wikipedia and the web in order to find more in depth information and clearer maps. In fact I found myself doing this a lot throughout the book as it led me to research areas of the war as I was reading.
by DennisF
I have been a devotee of The Great War for many years and have read shed-loads about it. From complicated explanations of why it begun through to excessive details about battles on the western front that were fought by heroic men under the direction of stubborn, bordering upon stupid, generals, that cost thousands upon thousand of lives, all of which ended as stalemates. I knew of AJP Taylor’s book but never got around to reading it until now. In my very limited experience, Taylor was one of the finest historians of the 20th century blessed with a unique ability to tell it as it is. This book, written by a man blessed with enormous common sense, is an excellent read. He explains clearly that on the Western Front, once won side made a breach in the defences of the other, the advance could never be maintained because there wasn’t an efficient method for the supply of ammunition and general supplies. Inevitably, an advance would stop and everyone would go back to square 1. Sadly, it took both sides five years to figure this out and to realize that an outright victory would never be achieved on the Western Front. Taylor puts all of this into perspective. He also, rather by accident in my view, gives a unique insight into the Russian revolution and how the whole thing was engineered by just a few people. That Russia withdrew from the war that in turn enabled Luddendorf to transfer yet more divisions to the Western Front, made little impact on the war’s outcome. I daresay that professional historians have, or, will dismiss this book as lacking in detail. However, to me that’s the strength of the book; it is readable! The black and white pictures are superb and include aspects of WWI that I didn’t know about. My view is that the Western front was fought by heroes in pointless armed struggles. Nothing Taylor says dissuades me from this conclusion although the armistice did allow the restoration of the Belgian state (and indirectly, of course many others), which was far from pointless. I could go on, but will do much better by referring you to this book as an absolute requirement if you want to begin to understand that dreadful conflict.
by jimbo
This book gives a good understanding of why AJPT was so very successful and at the same time disapproved of by many professional historians. Perhaps his views on the causes and responsibilities for the carnage in WW1 have worn well and are not so far from current thoughts. The pictures are interesting but unfortunately the maps do not work well on Kindle, or a PC and the script is more or less impossible to read.