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The First World War : a concise global history / William Kelleher Storey.

by Storey, William Kelleher.

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Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010, c2009.

World War, 1914-1918.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Environmental aspects.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Technology.

9780742541450 (cloth : alk. paper)

0742541452 (cloth : alk. paper)

9780742541467 (pbk.) :

0742541460 (pbk.)

Exploring world history.

xii, 193 p. : maps, plan ; 24 cm.

Introduction. Environment, technology, and the origins of war: Empires at high tide and low tide -- The German question -- Planning for war -- The Naval arms race -- Crisis of 1914. Optimism, 1914-1916: War in Western Europe, 1914-1915 -- War in Eastern and Southern Europe, 1914-1915 -- War in Africa, 1914-1916 -- War at sea, 1914-1916 -- War in the Middle East, 1914-1916. Intensification, 1916-1917: Big offensives of 1916 -- Arts of war -- War at sea, 1916-1917 -- Total war -- Widening of the war -- Domestic politics in wartime -- Western front in 1917 -- Africa and the Middle East, 1916-1918 -- Wilson's plan for peace. Conclusions: 1918 and beyond -- Western front in 1918 -- Impact of war -- Peace settlements -- Environment, technology, and change -- Sources on the First World War.

In a compact but comprehensive and clear narrative, this book explores the First World War from a genuinely global perspective. Putting a human face on the war, the author brings to life individual decisions and experiences as well as environmental and technological factors such as food, geography, manpower, and weapons. He argues that the war profoundly changed the ways in which people imagined the landscape around them and thought about technology and the environment. Before the war, Europe and its colonies generally regarded industrial technology as an instrument of modernity; the landscape existed to be conquered, divided, and ruled. During and after the war, the costs of conquest became much higher, raising significant doubts about the value of progress. Soldiers experienced profound personal degradation, physical injuries, and mental collapse in the midst of nightmarish, technologically induced environmental conditions, which they vividly remembered when they formed new identities in the postwar world. Although people did not abandon thoughts of technological advance, after the war they had a keener sense of modernity's costs. Without neglecting traditional themes, the author's interweaving of the role of environment and technology enriches our understanding of the social, political, and military history of the war, not only in Europe, but throughout the world.

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