History Of Warfare: The First World War

Part of the Cassell 'History Of Warfare' series, a multi-volume history of war and warfare from ancient to modern times.

War occurs because the great mass of human beings are prepared, at least in certain circumstances, to regard the resort to arms as an acceptable proceeding.

This narrative history describes a war that developed into one of attrition and immobile fronts. Both sides converted peacetime industries to war purposes en masse, and whole populations were mobilised either into the war industry or into the armed forces. New weapons were developed - poison gas, high-explosive shells, tanks, aeroplanes and submarines - and yet still the Western Front remained static.

Explore the origins of the Great War of 1914-18, the actions and ambitions of the powers involved, and the consequences of the end of the war, as well as the acrimony that just twenty years later was to lead to the advent of a second, even greater World War.