The First World War: An Illustrated History (Penguin Books)
by A. J. P. Taylor
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A. J. P. Taylor was one of the most acclaimed and uncompromising historians of the twentieth century. In this clear, lively and now-classic account of the First World War, he tells the story of the conflict from the German advance in the West, through the Marne, Gallipoli, the Balkans and the War at Sea to the offensives of 1918 and the state of Europe after the war. Containing photographs and maps, this an essential history of the war that 'cut deep into the consciousness of modern man'.Tags
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Member Reviews
Read this during GCE History studies when in English Secondary schools Modern History allegedly stopped around 1918, although in the content of certain syllabi there was reference to the causes & events of WW2.
AJP Taylor was the doyen of Modern History studies in G.B. & this book full of erudite yet cut-to-the-chase factual interpretation of the events of World War One is the epitome of Taylor's lucid intellectual powers. The often pithy &/or witty captions to the numerous illustrations encapsulate Taylor's sardonic overview of what the photos were originally intended to be about.
Taylor's enlightening prose captured my interest even at age 15, & I have read this tome 3 times since over decades finding new appreciation of its depth of show more perception of the core ill-founded reasoning & mistaken (misadventures) purposes that so bedevilled the World of Humanity at war August 1914 to November 1918.
In spite of the years since publication Taylor's History of WW1 is still thoroughly recommended. show less
AJP Taylor was the doyen of Modern History studies in G.B. & this book full of erudite yet cut-to-the-chase factual interpretation of the events of World War One is the epitome of Taylor's lucid intellectual powers. The often pithy &/or witty captions to the numerous illustrations encapsulate Taylor's sardonic overview of what the photos were originally intended to be about.
Taylor's enlightening prose captured my interest even at age 15, & I have read this tome 3 times since over decades finding new appreciation of its depth of show more perception of the core ill-founded reasoning & mistaken (misadventures) purposes that so bedevilled the World of Humanity at war August 1914 to November 1918.
In spite of the years since publication Taylor's History of WW1 is still thoroughly recommended. show less
Very enjoyable, highly readable, dry and pithy account of the First World War. Good with context, and the personalities involved. Does reinforce the "lions led by donkeys" popular image of the war.
This was one of the first books I read about World War One. As usual with [a:Taylor|12831|A.J.P. Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1287339351p2/12831.jpg], it is brimming over with self confident judgments. Sadly, while I enjoyed this book immensely at the time, the more I have read on the subject, and particularly the more recent scholarship I have read, the lower my opinion of this book has become.
As too often with Taylor, entertainment trumps history.
As too often with Taylor, entertainment trumps history.
If you are well read on WWI, this is not a book for you. Provides a fine overview of the conflict including motivations, economics, social aspects (women's issues). Some of the comments by Dr. Taylor are insightful, tongue in cheek as well as outside the norm. I found the final section..1919..particularly interesting. Here he deals with the after effects of the conflict and the shortcomings of the treaty with Germany. A fast read.
The photos and their thoughtful captions are what make this the best WWI book, in my opinion.
Love him or hate him A.J.P. Taylor is always engaging. And opinionated. Highly recommended.
I found it helpful as on overview.
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188+ Works 6,178 Members
British historian A.J.P. Taylor studied at Oxford University and in 1938 became a fellow of Magdalen College. Interested chiefly in diplomatic and central European history, he is a prolific and masterful writer. Fritz Stern wrote of him and his The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848--1918 (1954) in the Political Science Quarterly: "There is show more something Shavian about A. J. P. Taylor and his place among academic historians; he is brilliant, erudite, witty, dogmatic, heretical, irritating, insufferable, and withal inescapable. He sometimes insults and always instructs his fellow-historians, and never more so than in his present effort to reinterpret the diplomatic history of Europe from 1848 to the end of the First World War. . . . After a brilliant introduction, in which he defines the balance of power and assesses the relative and changing strength of the Great Powers, Mr. Taylor presents a chronological survey, beginning with the diplomacy of war, 1914--1918. . . . [He] writes on two levels. He narrates the history of European diplomacy and compresses it admirably into a single volume. Imposed upon the narrative is his effort to probe the historical meaning of given actions and conditions. . . . He has a peculiar sense of inevitability, growing out of what he regards the logic of a given development, as well as a delicate feeling for live options and alternatives. Mr. Taylor suggests that fear, not aggression, was the dominant impulse of pre-war diplomacy." The Origins of the Second World War (1961), again controversial and lively, starts from the premise (in Taylor's words) that "the war of 1939, far from being premeditated, was a mistake, the result on both sides of diplomatic blunders." The New Statesman said of it: "Taylor is the only English historian now writing who can bend the bow of Gibbon and Macaulay. [This is] a masterpiece: lucid, compassionate, beautifully written in a bare, sparse style, and at the same time deeply disturbing." Several of Taylor's other works also received high praise. Among these were Bismarck, the Man and the Statesman (1955), in which he exonerated Bismarck; Hapsburg Monarchy, 1809--1914, a survey of the era; and English History, 1919--1945, a volume in the Oxford History of England Series, greeted by the N.Y. Review of Books as "an astonishing tour de force." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Ensimmäinen maailmansota
- Important events
- World War I (1914 | 1918)
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.74)
- Languages
- 5 — English, Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 10
