But the heart of Keegan's superb narrative is, of course, his analysis of the military conflict. He reveals how, by an astonishing failure of diplomacy and communication, a bilateral dispute grew to engulf an entire continent. Probing the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict, Keegan takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations among Europe's crowned heads (all of them related to one another by blood) and ministers, and their doomed efforts to defuse the crisis. With The First World War, John Keegan, one of our most eminent military historians, fulfills a lifelong ambition to write the definitive account of the Great War for our generation. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times-modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society-and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the twentieth century as mechanized warfare and mass death. 479-486) and index.The First World War created the modern world. The Battle of the Frontiers and the Marne

At its heart, however is the terrible human cost of this unparalleled conflict, the loss which, however vastly extended, remains personal and individual.

But the war also acted as a formidable engine for change throughout the world, and this too is revealed in his new book. It was of course foremost a military conflict, and the battles on land, sea and in the air form the narrative heart of his study, with some fascinating new interpretations of the military events. A conflict of unparalleled ferocity which extended far beyond its European epicentre, it broke the century of relative peace and prosperity which we associate with the Victorian era and unleashed the demons of the twentieth century - pestilence, military destruction and mass death - and also the ideas which continue to shape our world today - modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, and radical ideas about economics and society. The First World War created the modern world. The First World War / John Keegan Book Bib ID

The First World War by John Keegan