The Cambridge History of the First World War: Volume 1, Global War 1

This first volume of The Cambridge History of the First World War provides a comprehensive account of the war's military history. An international team of leading historians charts how a war made possible by globalization and imperial expansion unfolded into catastrophe, growing year by year in scale and destructive power far beyond that which anyone had anticipated in 1914. Adopting a global perspective, the volume analyses the spatial impact of the war and the subsequent ripple effects that occurred both regionally and across the world. It explores how imperial powers devoted vast reserves of manpower and material to their war efforts and how, by doing so, they changed the political landscape of the world order. It also charts the moral, political and legal implications of the changing character of war and, in particular, the collapse of the distinction between civilian and military targets. The Cambridge History of the First World War is a comprehensive, three-volume work which provides an authoritative account of the military, political, social, economic and cultural history of the Great War. Reflecting the very latest research in the field, the volumes provide a comprehensive guide to the course of the war and of how the dynamics of conflict unfolded throughout the world. Volume I surveys the military history showing the brutal realities of a global war among industrialized powers, whilst Volumes II and III explore the social, economic, cultural and political challenges that the war presented to politicians, industrialists, soldiers and civilians. Written by a team of leading international historians, the volumes together reveal the ways in which the war transcended the boundaries of Europe to subsequently transform the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas just as much as Europe itself