The Great War: Perspectives on the First World War

The Great War takes a hard look at the legend of the ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ at Ypres in 1914 – an event that became a cornerstone of Nazi mythology. It describes the Gallipoli campaign as it has never been described before – from the Turkish side. Here too are the horrors of naval warfare, as both British and German sailors experienced them at the Battle of Jutland; the near breakdown of the American commander, John H. Pershing; and the rarely told story of the British disaster on the Tigris River in what is now Iraq. Michael Howard chronicles the summer of 1914 and the descent into a war that leaders were actually more afraid to avoid than to join. John Keegan writes about the muddy tragedy of Passchendaele in 1917. Jan Morris details the rise and fall of Sir John Fisher, whom she characterizes as the greatest British admiral since Nelson.