The Experience of World War I

by Jay Murray Winter

World War I was one of the greatest upheavals in history, involving upwards of 70 million combatants--9 million of whom lost their lives--and setting off shock waves that were felt worldwide long after the Armistice of 1918. In The Experience of World War I , J.M. Winter marshalls a
comprehensive range of historical materials, hundreds of vivid illustrations, and numerous eye-witness accounts to provide an illuminating and gripping chronicle of this cataclysmic event and its aftermath.
How did the assassination of one man, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, trigger such vast devastation? What was combat like for the common soldier? Why did the generals persist in large-scale offensives after catastrophic losses early in the war? What was the impact of the war on European politics,
the world economy, and the arts? To answer these and myriad other questions, Winter examines the war year by year, describing the conflict as it was experienced by politicians, generals, soldiers and civilians. Illustrated with hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs, the book uncovers
many intriguing aspects of the it reveals that soldiers in fact spent only two weeks per month in the front trenches, describes how the father of tycoon Rupert Murdoch broke the story of the disaster at Gallipoli, and outlines the unprecedented logistics problems the military faced (it took 20
boxcars of food per day to feed 17,000 men--and there were 5 million men in the British army alone). There is also a wealth of fascinating sidebar material covering a wide variety of secondary topics, from women's war poetry to the sinking of the Lusitania T. The book is further enhanced by numerous
first-hand accounts of life during the war, drawn from diaries, memoirs and other writings of both men and women, from all countries and social groups, and it also includes a full chronology, many full-color maps, and tables of essential data.
Combining political, military, and social history, this evocative account captures the Great War in all its complexity, from the bloody battles of Verdun, the Somme, and Passchendaele, to the flood of post-war literary and artistic works, including All Quiet on the Western Front and Jean Renoir's
film La Grande Illusion .

Genres: Nonfiction, History, World War I, Reference

Hardcover

First published November 3, 1988

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

My reading of Barbara Tuckman's 'The Guns of August' reminded me that this was also in my Library. My go-to reference for World War I. Lots of useful maps.

[Michael Eisenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to get back into military history and wanted to concentrate on a single period or campaigne. Since I know very little about this dismal time in histroy, I chose The Great War.

This was an absolute fantastic introduction/overview/jumping off point. The book was arranged so logically that everything flowed, even the complex web of politics and (un)diplomacy that started it all off. Starting with the politicians and then branching off to the generals, soldiers and finally the civilians (although not necessarily non combatants)

Clear charts, fantatically rendered maps and hundreds of photos were just the icing on the cake. I can highly recommend this book for the WW1 beginner...like me.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those incredibly rich books packed with information on just about every facet of the war. Lavishly illustrated, with hundreds of sidebars on aspects of the war that might otherwise go unexamined. Arranged chronologically, the book examines the war from just about every perspective, from the common soldier's to the general's, from life in the trenches to life on the home front.

For those of us who are less informed about the strategy and logistics of the war, there are many clear maps and charts that detail the various battles and critical campaigns. Ample first-hand accounts flesh out the well-researched text. Highly recommended.

[Robin_bobin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Četlo se to poměrně dobře, bylo zajímavé sledovat válku z pohledů politiků, generálů, vojáků a civilů, mapy a grafy byly informativní a opravdu to bylo odvyprávěno v souvislostech.
Nevím, jak vydání vypadá v originále, ale v tom českém je grafická stránka úplná katastrofa: o uspořádání ani nemohu mluvit, je to všechno naházené přes sebe, kompozice obrázků prostě nedává smysl a tohle všechno akorát otravovalo během četby.

[John Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book attempts to summarize the experience of World War I for the general reader. The subject is far too large to be covered in a single volume, and discussions of the conflicting views of historians on various aspects of the war is afflicted by a tendency to bounce back and forth from the views of one school of thought to another, in the style of verbal ping-pong. The author's personal opinions as a mid-twentieth century socialist also come through, leading to several notable gaps. For example, although Mr. Winter accurately lists the rise of Nazism and fascism among the deleterious results of the war and its aftermath, he completely overlooks the catastrophe of Bolshevism, which also arose from the ashes of WWI. On the whole, I'd rate this book as competent in addressing its subject, but nothing more.