Keith Jeffery (1952–2016)

“My aim in this book has been to use emblematic events from each month of 1916 as hooks for a series of reflections through which the astonishing range, variety and interconnectedness of the wartime experience can be charted.” The author accomplishes this goal with this quirky and thought-provoking book. This is not a complete history of WWI and is not meant to be. It does have some interesting photographs, and details you won’t find elsewhere. I treasure the anecdote about an show more internationally-themed concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where musicians of French and German descent deliberately played out of tune in each other’s pieces. Stories like that maybe give you a window into how people were thinking.

1916 is a valuable addition to the recent work that tries to understand more than just the trench warfare on the Western Front. Not only actual battles (if you saw “The African Queen,” you can read about the real German gunboat that plied Lake Tanganyika) but the participation by laborers from Africa, India, and China, many of whom lost their lives and deserve better memorials. show less

The great Irish historian Roy Foster has argued that the First World War is one of the most decisive events in the history of modern Ireland, one with a profound impact on Ireland's politics, economy, and society. Yet in spite of this the war remains an under-examined event, lacking the attention given to the Famine, the Home Rule campaign, and the Anglo-Irish War.

Given this deficiency, Keith Jeffery's book is a welcome addition to the historical literature. Developed from a series of show more presentations given in the Lees Knowles Lecture series at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1998, this book provides an examination of a number of aspects of Ireland and the war. In four chapters, Jeffery examines why Irishmen signed up for the conflict, the experience of the war, the impact of the war on Irish culture, and how Ireland has remembered the war. In doing so, he tackles a number of knotty questions and demolishes a few myths, addressing the complicated motivations behind enlistment, the dream of Irish Nationalist politicians to organize distinctively Irish military units, and the political complications within Ireland of honoring a war fought for the British - one that many Irish revolutionaries so resolutely opposed.

Supplemented with a useful bibliographic essay, Jeffery's book is a valuable overview of a frequently neglected aspect of Irish history. Though hardly a comprehensive survey of the subject, it addresses many of the aspects of the war and its role in Irish history. Until the war receives the specialized attention it deserves, this will remain the best starting point for understanding how the war affected Ireland and how the Irish people have grappled with its memory. show less

Covers only 1909 to 1949. Gets badly bogged down in bureaucratic bullshit and doesn't say enough about what field agents did to acquire intelligence. I'm not satisfied with the organization of the book, either, but I get that Jeffery had only a small scope of the larger British Intelligence story to tell, as but one of several officially sanctioned histories covering specific elements. Frustrating, but understandable.

I should also say that I had an interesting disconnect at times because show more this all took place during the end of the British colonial era, so racism and classism are endemic, and horrifying behavior, especially during wartime, was both par for the course and also very carefully spoken *around*, in passive voice. Maybe they needed the distance of passive voice to save their sanity in war?

Things I liked: the coverage of the first world war and revolutionary Russia and the deliberate attempts to mention any and all women who were present when possible, and not only the (sexy) field agents -- alas, the mentions are mostly brief and often fail to show ostensibly awesome women doing anything particularly awesome. I'd happily read a book ONLY about women of various intelligence services being excellent intelligence officers, especially if it didn't spend half of its length praising the male commanders of the service, as the ones I've flipped through seem to.

Anyway, this book is not exciting and parts of it are actively dull, but it contained things related to my interests. Hence my somewhat generous 3 stars. show less

1916: A Global History is an in-depth look into WW1 in 1916. Jeffery looks at many different countries like Ireland, Greece, China, etc. However, I feel that unless you are a WW1 enthusiast, you may find yourself bored at certain chapters. I found myself counting down the pages to get to the 'good' chapters on topics I found interesting. On the topics I found interesting, he took a very unique angle. When discussing Greece in 1916, it looks at it from the perspective of a spy. In fact, many show more chapters look at the 'spy' angle. So for those interested in espionage in WW1, you may enjoy this book. show less