Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #919662 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-09
• Binding: Paperback
• 412 pages

Synopsis
Provides the facts, figures and guidance about World War I required by students of all levels. The book features each nation involved, all battles and campaigns, the weaponry and the commanders, and is arranged in an easy-access, highly-illustrated format.

About the Author
Philip J Haythornthwaite is known to all followers of matters Napoleonic as a prolific and knowledgeable source of original research. A one time bookseller, he has an extensive private collection of Napoleonic material and is the author of countless books and articles on the period.

Customer Reviews

Invaluable & original, if flawed...
This book belongs in the library of every World War One researcher or enthusiast as an invaluable reference work with a variety of information - but it is not without shortcomings. A greater variety of easily accessible information would have been welcome, in the form of a wider range of statistics and tables. For example, I could not easily find a list of casualty numbers for the various nations; the information WAS there, it was just that it was incorporated into text when a table may have made finding it much easier. However, having said that, this book certainly has a wealth of information and there are number of useful tables, lists, maps et cetera among the blocks of text. Also, to go back to the earlier example, the casualty figures given are analysed and put into context in a way that a table could not achieve. The book's real strength lies in its air of originality; for one thing it bridges a neglected 'no-mans land' between the empathy-based personal histories and the jargon-heavy accounts aimed at the reader with a full prior knowledge. It outflanks the dictionaries of WW1 (i.e. the excellent Macmillan Dictionary of the First World War) by being free to offer more in the way of analysis. Another aspect of the book's originality is in the nature of its information; for example, a slightly eccentric 'Miscellanea' chapter gives systems of measurement from combatant nations, and imperial equivalents, among other statistics, the relevance of which is not always immediately obvious! Also the pictures vary from the standard stock of WW1 photographs we see repeated from source to source. Another favourite feature of this book, and one of its greatest strengths, is the way the contents list for each chapter is laid out. The History of the War contents list doubles as a quick reference to the battle fronts, and the contents list for the Warring Nations is a revelation. In fact, this chapter seems set to be used over and over again. If you have ever asked yourself how a certain nation came to be dragged into the conflict, this is where you will find out, together with at least a paragraph or two of background material, often much more. In short, this is a book that is sure to prove its worth again and again, and despite a few omissions, this is truly the nearest we have to an accessible & comprehensive WW1 source book.