Understanding World War I: A Concise History

It was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Instead it began a cycle of violence that shaped the twentieth century, brought about another World War within a generation, and whose echoes still reverberate in the twenty-first century.

This is the story of the First World War, a bloody four-year conflict that shaped the twentieth century. By the time it ended, over nine million people had lost their lives and more than four times that number had been wounded. It redrew the map of Europe and brought four great empires to an end.

It heralded the rise of a new world, as a million American dough boys crossed the Atlantic in the defense of European liberty, while at the same time it underscored the twilight of the old world.