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The First World War
The First World War | John Keegan
9 posts | 7 read | 8 to read
The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the twentieth century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times--modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society--and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment. With The First World War, John Keegan, one of our most eminent military historians, fulfills a lifelong ambition to write the definitive account of the Great War for our generation. Probing the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict, Keegan takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations among Europe's crowned heads (all of them related to one another by blood) and ministers, and their doomed efforts to defuse the crisis. He reveals how, by an astonishing failure of diplomacy and communication, a bilateral dispute grew to engulf an entire continent. But the heart of Keegan's superb narrative is, of course, his analysis of the military conflict. With unequalled authority and insight, he recreates the nightmarish engagements whose names have become legend--Verdun, the Somme and Gallipoli among them--and sheds new light on the strategies and tactics employed, particularly the contributions of geography and technology. No less central to Keegan's account is the human aspect. He acquaints us with the thoughts of the intriguing personalities who oversaw the tragically unnecessary catastrophe--from heads of state like Russia's hapless tsar, Nicholas II, to renowned warmakers such as Haig, Hindenburg and Joffre. But Keegan reserves his most affecting personal sympathy for those whose individual efforts history has not recorded--"the anonymous millions, indistinguishably drab, undifferentially deprived of any scrap of the glories that by tradition made the life of the man-at-arms tolerable." By the end of the war, three great empires--the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian and the Ottoman--had collapsed. But as Keegan shows, the devastation ex-tended over the entirety of Europe, and still profoundly informs the politics and culture of the continent today. His brilliant, panoramic account of this vast and terrible conflict is destined to take its place among the classics of world history. With 24 pages of photographs, 2 endpaper maps, and 15 maps in text
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The First World War | John Keegan
Mehso-so

It‘s not as in depth as say “The Guns of August”, but it does a great job covering the four hellish years that changed the course of Europe for even worse 20 years later.

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coffees
The First World War | John Keegan
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I don't know anything about German History (which I now want to read more about) but if they keep getting the short end during dealings with neighboring countries, I get why there'd be resentment #worldwar #history #nonfiction #europeanhistory

#24B4Monday #teamslaughter @TheReadingMermaid @Andrew65 @jb72

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Lizpixie
The First World War | John Keegan
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#RedRoseSeptember #Day8 #History The Great War has always been a part of history that interests me. The fact that the human race said it was “the war to end all wars” then just over 20 years later did it all again boggles my mind. The horror of the Somme & Gallipoli should never have been repeated but people are stupid unfortunately. In doing my family history I found numerous relatives who were there, and a few that never made it back. #warsucks

arlenefinnigan We visited the Flanders Fields museum in Ypres and they have a display that lists all the wars since the 'war to end all wars'. Heartbreaking. 5y
Cinfhen Beautiful post , Liz 💚 5y
Freespirit Unfortunately we repeat the same mistakes! 5y
gradcat I love what you‘ve written here...it definitely “boggles the mind,” and furthermore warrants keeping upfront in human memory, as well as history. ♥️ 5y
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Lizpixie
The First World War | John Keegan
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#BookMail Pt6 This year is definitely #NonFiction2019 I‘ve been reading a lot of books set around the Great War, but was unsure of a lot of the details, like how exactly it started, and exact dates & locations of battles on the Western Front. So I researched a bit & found most people agree that this book is THE definitive book about the Great War as a whole. You can fill whole books with just 1 battle, but this has the broad strokes I needed.

JazzFeathers I've also head this one of the best. Have you already read it? I've become interested in WWI only recently and l haven't read a lot yet 5y
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coffees
The First World War | John Keegan
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Haha... I'm supposed to be where I parted the book but I'm where the paper bookmark is at #RIP but I ended up skipping to chapter 8 to read about Somme and Verdun for class today #unilife 🙃👌

p.s. This book has 10 chapters. I'm also supposed to be done with Men of War by Meyer and 6 chapters into Poilu by Barthas #history #nonfiction #historyminor #artmajor #thefirstworldwar #johnkeegan

Schnoebs Don‘t worry, your not alone on that school book reading struggle. I‘m desperately trying to finish these last 50 pages of my book before class tonight. Have I mentioned that it basically takes me an hour to read like 10 pages from this book! The struggle is so real lol 6y
coffees @Schnoebs Saaaammeee! I keep pacing myself like I'm reading a for fun book and keep finding myself lagging. like whyyy do I get so sleepy two paragraphs in?! Or when I have to reread sections because I keep getting distracted Orz good luck with class readings :""") 6y
Schnoebs I‘ve found the only thing that really helping me push through is having YouTube asmr room videos on and a time to be like “get this much work done in this time and you can take a 10 minute break” lol 6y
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coffees @Schnoebs asmr room videos? What are those? Erm I tend to be the type that takes the break first then crams like oh god why xD 6y
Schnoebs It allows me to not sit in silence while doing school work but also prevents me from putting some on the tv and distracting myself. It‘s my new favorite way of studying 6y
coffees @Schnoebs ohhhh! Hm maybe I should do this too 🤔🤔 I tend to prefer quiet but sometimes it gets TOO quiet, esp if I've been working on something for too long lol 6y
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coffees
The First World War | John Keegan
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To think that WW1 started as a conflict between Austria and Serbia, and could have been kept local if the bigger countries hadn't gotten involved (Germany, Russia). At least, that's the understanding Keegan is giving, but maybe it would have only been delayed #thefirstworldwar #nonfiction #history #johnkeegan

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coffees
The First World War | John Keegan
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I don't usually like writing in my books but if it's for school I can't help it!! It's an easy way for me to take notes (in addition to Actual Notes) and helps me remember stuff. Also rereading helps w my memory too 😆😆😆 #amreading #unilife #nonfiction #johnkeegan #thefirstworldwar

Yeah I'm sorta procrastinating rn 😲😲

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coffees
The First World War | John Keegan
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So this is my history class #tbrpile and the reason I'm not going to be reading much in the next 10 weeks 🙃🙃🙃 #university #thegreatwar #worldwar #nonfiction #books

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Lizpixie
The First World War | John Keegan
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My youngest son & his fiancée went to Canberra last week and brought me back these posters from The War Memorial and a fluffy bookworm from Questicon. It's an actual bibliophage which causes the tunnels in old manuscripts. Isn't it cute!?

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