Review
"Here is a global history of a global war. This volume is particularly useful on the Central Powers, and on the way in which the revolutionary currents unleashed by the war swept away all three of the empires - German, Austro-Hungarian, and Turkish - who challenged Britain, France, Italy and Russia for dominance of the international order. The fact that the Russian empire followed the path to collapse reinforces Sondhaus's claim that the Great War introduced a revolutionary wave in Europe which in time swept over the rest of the world." -Jay Winter, Yale University
"This provocative analysis convincingly presents World War I as both a global war and a global revolution. Alike in military, political, cultural and intellectual contexts the Great War generated a broad spectrum of responses to the same set of experiences. All of them, however, contributed to a paradigm shift: a fundamental redefinition of what societies and individuals could be coaxed, cozened, or compelled to endure without breaking. A revolution indeed-one whose legacy still shapes headlines." -Dennis Showalter, Colorado College
"Lawrence Sondhaus has set out to provide a new history of the First World War that draws on the latest scholarship, but yet remains accessible. He has succeeded admirably in his task and, as a distinguished scholar of Austria-Hungary, is able constantly to remind his readers that this was a global conflict, and not one fought exclusively on the Western Front. Special sections examining the personal experience of war, as well as the key historiographical debates, also enliven the text for the general reader." -Ian F W Beckett, University of Kent.
"The book is beautifully produced and presented... Maps and illustrations are expertly annotated and placed where they belong in the book. Cambridge can be well proud of this superb book. It deserves to be widely used on college courses on the Great War." -Holger Herwig, Journal of Military History
"...this survery of the Great War is masterful." -James D. Scudieri, ParametersL US Army War College Quarterly
"Comparative histories of the First World War are still rare, which in itself makes Lawrence Sondhaus's foray into this field welcome." -John Gooch, European History Quarterly
Book Description
World War One was the cause, catalyst and accelerator of revolutionary change on an unprecedented scale. This is an indispensable new introduction to the global history of the conflict and its revolutionary consequences from the war's origins to the making of peace, across all of its theatres and home fronts.
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