To Arms (v.1) (The First World War) - Hardcover

Monumental ... remarkable in almost every respect ... Strachan's book emphasizes the truly global dimensions of the theatres of war ... Strachan presents a fascinating account, once again from a masterly comparative perspective, of the role of finances and taxation as necessary conditions of modern warfare ... this volume sets new standards. The reciprocal relationship between the front and the home front has rarely been so knowledgeably portrayed. German Historical Institute Bulletin This book is not just a broad survey, although it is an excellent one, but also a contribution in its own right to our understanding of the conflict of 1914-18 ... a thorougly satisfying account of the first nine months of the war ... This is a superb book. It is the best survey ever written of the initial period of the war, in terms both of analysis and comprehensiveness ... The price is right, the author is learned and the text enjoyable. Canadian Journal of History The most important historical contribtution on the First World War to appear in the last decade ... These admirable pages are full of detailed information, clearly and accurately set out, placed within the wider context, and handled with authority and impartiality. The price is affordable and the quality of paper and binding is excellent. Journal of The Society for Army Historical Research Much of the originality and distinctiveness of its contribution lies in the stunning quantity of previously unfamiliar information that it makes available ... by far the fullest and best account in any language of some of modern history's most shattering events. English Historical Review Strachan has produced a truly comparative history, in which the Eastern European fighting fronts receive almost as much attention as the Western one and every theatre of war is extensively explored ... the book amounts to a new international history of the early twentieth century as a whole. English Historical Review For once the adjective 'monumental' is apposite ... Given the speed at which the literature on World War I continues to proliferate, it is scarcely conceivable that one single writer will ever again achieve such mastery of it. English Historical Review This promises to be one of the most detailed studies of the Great War published for many decades ... Massive the volume is but worth the paper and ink required. Definitive it may well become. Contemporary Review Hew Strachan's Volume I is a massive, masterly work of synthesis, incorporating the researches and reinterpretations of numerous scholars over many years into a single coherent entity ... Definitely recommended and outstanding value for money. Soldiers of the Queen: The Journal of the Victorian Military Society It is a monumental book, but deservedly so: and whether your interest in the First World War is how it was conducted in Arras or in Africa, you will find a precise, accurate and thoughtful description of it here. The second and third volumes cannot come soon enough. Simon Heffer, Country Life By far the most important book to have been published in my field during 2001 is the first volume of Hew Strachan's The First World War. He must be sick of hearing it described as 'magisterial', 'exhaustive' and 'authoritative' but so it is. It is also readable, fascinating, and deals with far more than the military aspects of the war. Michael Howard, Times Literary Supplement A wonderfully readable and comprehensive new account of the war that was supposed to end all wars, a book that's all the more impressive for the precise and thoughtful way in which it navigates past some notorious historiographical hazards ... magisterial new history. Robert McCrum, Observer It is hard to imagine a more definitive survey ... The First World War grandfather to whom this book is dedicated could not have a more fitting memorial. Robert McCrum, Observer He seems to have read everything that has been written in English, French and German about not only the military and naval but the political, social, and not least the intellectual history of the period, and produced a synthesis that can only be described as magisterial. His account of popular reactions to the outbreak of war is both penetrating and comprehensive. Michael Howard, Times Literary Supplement Strachan's work is, in short, encyclopaedic ... this is the first instalment of what will, when completed, be not only a major but a great work of history. Michael Howard, Times Literary Supplement Historians of Africa will bless him for writing so comprehensive an account of a war as traumatic for their continent as it was for Europe. Michael Howard, Times Literary Supplement "Definitive", proclaims the blurb accompanying the first volume of Hew Strachan's magnificent new history of the first world war, and definitive it is. The Economist This book stands in the classic tradition of academic political and military history: an essential work of reference with every page densely packed with facts, figures, and analysis. The Sunday Telegraph This deserves to rank as one of the most impressive books of modern history in a generation. Max Hastings, Evening Standard The sheer sustained quality of both Strachan's research and his prose is remarkable ... there is always sparkle and freshness, and a sheer delight in storytelling all too often absent from weighty academic history ... The old battle lines of first-world-war history have been changed for ever. Richard Holmes, Saturday Review, The Guardian Incontestably the most important addition to the published work on the war for many years. Stand To! The Journal of the Western Front Association Based on the first volume, Hew Strachan's trilogy must be considered a Great War master-class, a towering achievement, combining command and control of sources - political, military and sociological - with scholarly analysis and a skilful and unpretentiously crafted text. Nuggets of fascinating information gild the copy adding to colour the general and underline Hew Strachan's grasp of the particulars. Stand To! The Journal of the Western Front Association Strachan's work is convincing not only because of its comparative approach, the wealth of material it draws upon, the author's mastery of the masses of literature on the First World War, but also because it questions established notions about the Great War. German Historical Institute Bulletin

This is the first truly definitive history of the First World War, the war that has done most to shape the twentieth century. The first generation of its historians had access to only a limited range of sources, and their focus was primarily on military events. More recent approaches have embraced cultural, diplomatic, economic, and social history. In Hew Strachan's authoritative and readable history these fresh perspectives are incorporated with the miltary and strategic narrative. The result is an account that breaks the bounds of national preoccupations to become both global and comparative. To Arms, the first of three volumes in this magisterial study, examines not only the causes of the war and its opening clashes on land and sea, but also the ideas that underpinned it, and the motivations of the people who supported it. It provides full and pioneering accounts of the war's finances, of the war in Africa, and of the Central Powers' bid to widen the war outside Europe.