Publisher Description

In World War One- A Short History, Norman Stone provides a terse, opinionated and wry short history of the First World War.In 1914 a new kind of war, and a new kind of world, came about. Fourteen million combatants died, a further twenty million were wounded, four empires were destroyed and even the victors' empires were fatally damaged. The First World War marked a revolution in the technology of slaughter as trench warfare, artillery barrages, tanks and chemical warfare made their mark on the battlefield for the first time.The sheer complexity and scale of the war have encouraged historians to write books on a similar scale. But in only 140 pages, Norman Stone distils a lifetime of teaching, arguing and thinking to reframe the overwhelming disaster whose aftershocks shaped the rest of the twentieth century.'Bold, provocative and witty ... one of the outstanding historians of our age'Spectator'Do we need another history of the First World War? The answer in the case of Norman Stone's short book is, yes - because of its opinionated freshness and the unusual, sharp facts that fly about like shrapnel'Literary Review'Exhilarating ... scintillating ... a heady cocktail'Observer'Entertaining and insightful ... one of the handful of living historians who can write with style and wit'Tibor Fischer, Sunday Telegraph, Books of the YearNorman Stone is one of Britain's most celebrated historians. He is the author of The Eastern Front, 1914-1917, Hitler- An Introduction, Europe Transformed and The Atlantic and its Enemies. He has taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Bilkent, where he is now Director of the Turkish-Russian Centre.

Notes

A dazzling and iconoclastic account of the terrible disaster of 1914-1918, which had hardback sales of over 6000 copies. Stone distils a lifetime of teaching about WWI into one short volume, in a terse, brilliantly written, opinionated and witty way. With 14 million dead, 20 million wounded, and the destruction of 4 empires, this war had huge repercussions. 'It fizzes with life and sparkles with aphorisms tossed off with aplomb, along with condemnations and commendations alike...' Nigel Jones, Sunday Telegraph

Author Biography

Norman Stone is one of Britain's most celebrated historians. For the period 1984-97 he was Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Professor Stone's publications include The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (Winner of the Wolfson Prize and published by Penguin) Hitler and Europe Transformed. He lives in Oxford and Istanbul.

Review

Bold, provocative and witty ... one of the outstanding historians of our age * Spectator *
Do we need another history of the First World War? The answer in the case of Norman Stone's short book is, yes - because of its opinionated freshness and the unusual, sharp facts that fly about like shrapnel * Literary Review *
One of the most original modern commentaries on the conflict ... this stimulating work can be read for pleasure in an afternoon, even if you are not particularly interested in World War One. That truly is the mark of a great history book * Evening Standard *
Exhilarating ... scintillating ... a heady cocktail * Observer *
Entertaining and insightful ... one of the handful of living historians who can write with style and wit -- Tibor Fischer * Sunday Telegraph, Books of the Year *
A corker of a book ... brings more clarity to this complex, much-written about subject than some historians manage to do in books three or four times as long * History Today *

Kirkus US Review

The First World War in fewer than 250 pages.Stone (History/Bilkent Univ.; Europe Transformed, 1878-1919, 1984, etc.) tackles the daunting task of summarizing a four-year global conflict in a brief cohesive narrative. For the most part he succeeds, astutely weaving together events from the Eastern, Western and Middle Eastern fronts until their culmination at Brest-Litovsk and the Treaty of Versailles; his almost complete omission of the African front is the one major lapse. The author's prose is anecdotal and overly colloquial, but his command of the subject matter is impressive and his style accessible. Stone's German-centric approach to framing the war balances the interplay between the Eastern and Western fronts, which would prove central to Germany's eventual capitulation. Yet the author also abides by the conventional view of sole German responsibility that would wreak so much havoc during the negotiations at Versailles; he notes in the opening chapter that "Berlin was waiting for 'the inevitable accident.' " While other powers struggled with internal nationalist movements throughout the war, most notably in the Russian, Hapsburg and Ottoman empires, Germany was a nation-state trying to move in the other direction and establish an empire. Stone juxtaposes the German high command's zeal against its failure to reconcile traditional cavalry-based warfare with new developments in technology. British and French military leaders made the same mistake, which proved to be one of the main factors in prolonging the dreaded stalemates and trench warfare that consumed so many lives. The author skims over some fascinating cultural elements, including the tremendous outpouring of trench literature and poetry, but he manages to address every military and political facet of the Great War in this welcome look at its manifestations beyond the Western Front.A stimulating, easily digested introduction to the cataclysm that inaugurated the 20th century. (Kirkus Reviews)

Review Text

Bold, provocative and witty ... one of the outstanding historians of our age

Review Quote

Bold, provocative and witty ... one of the outstanding historians of our age

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