The First World War

The First World War.  Author Michael Howard

The European powers were ready for war in 1914.  Germany, fuelled by ‘archaic militarism, global ambitions, and neurotic insecurity’, took the offensive, in the misguided belief that it would shorten the conflict.  Four years later, eight million people died in the most apocalyptic episode the world had known.  The pre-eminent military historian, Sir Michael Howard, has meditated on the subject of the First World War for several decades, examining both the war itself, and the potent legacy of resentment left to Germany by the peace.