A brilliant and penetrating new history of the First World War by one of the world`s foremost experts on the conflict. Reissued with a new introduction from the author. Hew Strachan is one of the world`s foremost experts on the Great War of 1914-18. His on-going three-volume history of the conflict, the first of which was published in 2001, is likely to become the standard academic reference work: Max Hastings called it `one of the most impressive books of modern history in a generation`, while Richard Holmes hailed it as a `towering achievement`. Now, Hew Strachan brings his immense knowledge to a one-volume work aimed squarely at the general reader. The inspiration behind the major Channel 4 series of the same name, to which Hew was chief consultant, THE FIRST WORLD WAR is a significant addition to the literature on this subject, taking as it does a uniquely global view of what is often misconceived as a prolonged skirmish on the Western Front.Exploring such theatres as the Balkans, Africa and the Ottoman Empire, Strachan assesses Britain`s participation in the light of what became a struggle for the defence of liberalism, and show how the war shaped the `short` twentieth century that followed it. Accessible, compelling and utterly convincing, this is modern history writing at its finest.