World War I: The Definitive Visual Guide

DK Publishing, 2018. — 362 p. — ISBN 9780241317655.When Winston Churchill reflected on World War I in the 1920s he claimed that “all the horrors of all the ages” were brought together in a terrible conflict that sucked in “not only armies, but whole populations”. The war of 1914–1918, or the “Great War” as it came to be known, was indeed a war of exceptional intensity, scale, and ruthlessness. It destroyed the fabric of European political life and set in motion movements worldwide that did not come to rest until much later in the 20th century. The effects of the war were deadly and devastating for every country dragged into its orbit.
A war that was supposed to be over in weeks soon became a long, drawn-out war of attrition. Military and naval belief in the decisive battle between rival navies and armies shifted inexorably towards a new concept of “total war” in which whole populations found themselves unexpected participants. This book describes and illustrates the war in all its many guises, from the brief colonial skirmishes in the Far East, when Japan seized Germany’s Pacific colonies, to the slaughterhouses of the Western Front, which consumed millions of young men in four years of unabated combat. Almost a century later, historians still debate why the Allies won and why the Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey – were forced late in 1918 to sue for an armistice. The answer has a lot to do with resources: the Allies controlled the seas and denied trade to the enemy; the British and French empires, and the United States, could supply food and raw materials to keep populations fed and factories supplied.Germany was forced to improvise and invent in order to keep the war effort going, and shortages slowly undermined the domestic war effort of all theCentral Powers. The war changed the map of the world. In 1919, four of the great pre-war empires – German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman – disappeared, while Britain and France faced an uncertain future in their surviving empires, where nationalist sentiment had been woken by theworld crisis. Peace was welcomed, but its survival was uncertain. On 11 November 1918, Armistice Day, Churchill, then Minister of Munitions, looked out of his office in Whitehall as people streamed out on to the street in scenes of “triumphant pandemonium”. But in his history of the war, Churchill concluded on a more sombre note: “Is this the end? Is it merely to be a chapter in a cruel and senseless story?” Sadly for humanity, it proved to be the prologue to the devastations to come a generation later.Richard Overy.
2014 marks the centennial of the start of World War I — DK will mark the occasion with the publication of World War I: The Definitive Visual Guide, a vividly illustrated, in-depth account of the Great War.
Written by historian R. G. Grant, and created by DK's award-winning editorial and design team, World War I charts the developments of the war from a global perspective. Using illustrated timelines, detailed maps, and personal accounts, readers will see the oft-studied war in a new light. Key episodes are set clearly in the wider context of the conflict, in-depth profiles look at the key generals and political leaders, and full-color photo galleries showcase the weapons, inventions, and new technologies that altered the course of history.
A vivid portrait of the confrontation on land, sea, and sky, World War I: The Definitive Visual Guide offers readers a bold and thoughtful new look at this complex and explosive moment in history.