The spectre of the Great War still haunts the world. No other conflict so dramatically illustrates the senselessness of war, the slaughter of the innocents, as the 1914-18 conflict. And no other conflict has so dramatically shaped the modern world; the Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler, the breakup of Empire, the supremacy of America and World War II all stem from the four years of the "war to end all wars". This is the total book of the total war, recounting in eyewitness testament every facet of the 1914-18 war from the trenches of Flanders to the staffrooms of the Imperial Germany Army, from T.E. Lawrence in the desert to the "Red Baron" in the air, from Land Girls in England to German U-boat crews in the Atlantic. And if all the horror of the war fought by the Tommies in the trenches is captured, so too are the machinations of the "top brass" and politicians. The book embraces the whole spectrum of the war for its uniqueness lay not only in the degree of slaughter but the manner in which it bound the people of the globe, East and West, high and low, combatant and civilian. It contains 300 accounts divided into five chronological sections, each section being prefaced by a 2000-word introduction, plus a useful timeline, detailing events in all theatres, runs through the book. This is a book of testament and experience, as well as explanation and evidence, making it useful for school and college students, as well as the general reader.
