Promotional Information

A major work by our greatest military historian, acclaimed as the definitive history of the First World War, the conflict that shaped the twentieth century.

About the Author

John Keegan is the Defence Editor of the Daily Telegraph and Britain's foremost military historian. The Reith Lecturer in 1998, he is the author of many bestselling books including The Face of Battle, Six Armies in Normandy, Battle at Sea, The Second World War, A History of Warfare (awarded the Duff Cooper Prize), Warpaths, The Battle for History, Intelligence in War and, most recently, The Iraq War. For many years John Keegan was the Senior Lecturer in Military History at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and he has been a Fellow of Princeton University and Delmas Distinguished Professor of History at Vassar. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He received the OBE in the Gulf War honours list, and was knighted in the Millennium honours list in 1999.

Reviews

"Magisterial in its scope, beautifully written and literally unputdownable... I cannot recommend Keegan's book too highly."
*Scotsman*

"Nobody describes a battle as Keegan does, vividly relating the unfolding events to the contours of the field of combat... This book is a kind of war memorial. As first-hand memory fades, The First World War honours the dead as only true history can."
*Sunday Times*

"John Keegan's The First World War can take its place alongside the other defining works he has written... The best and most approachable introduction to the war."
*Guardian*

"A splendidly readable account of the war on all fronts, from its political and cultural origins to its bloody conclusion... Compelling."
*Financial Times*

"Excellent... The First World War tells the story with passion, sanity and the military historian's eye for overall strategy."
*Mail on Sunday*

Esteemed military historian Keegan places the disastrous and still puzzling events of 1914-18 into a superb narrative. He is especially good at explaining the most befuddling part--the war's beginning, which he relates not with tired, powder-keg metaphors but with fresh analysis showing that, among other things, the reticence of European diplomats to use the telephone instead of traditional letters and cables allowed events to speed out of control. (LJ 4/15/99) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

"Magisterial in its scope, beautifully written and literally unputdownable... I cannot recommend Keegan's book too highly." -- Julian Critchley * Scotsman *
"Nobody describes a battle as Keegan does, vividly relating the unfolding events to the contours of the field of combat... This book is a kind of war memorial. As first-hand memory fades, The First World War honours the dead as only true history can." -- Niall Ferguson * Sunday Times *
"John Keegan's The First World War can take its place alongside the other defining works he has written... The best and most approachable introduction to the war." -- David Horspool * Guardian *
"A splendidly readable account of the war on all fronts, from its political and cultural origins to its bloody conclusion... Compelling." -- Max Wilkinson * Financial Times *
"Excellent... The First World War tells the story with passion, sanity and the military historian's eye for overall strategy." -- Andrew Roberts * Mail on Sunday *