The First World War is arguably the most misunderstood event in twentieth-century history. Most people believe that it was a meaningless conflict in which millions of men died through the incompetence of the generals. It is an image that has bee reinforced over the decades by art and literature, films and television programs, as well as by many popular histories.
In a radical new interpretation, military historian Gary Sheffield argues that the traditional view of the First World War is largely based on misconception. The war was certainly tragic, but it was not futile; millions of Allied soldiers died defending democracy against the aggression of militaristic, autocratic Imperial Germany.
Although condemned as "lions led by donkeys", in reality the British army experienced a steady learning curve as it took lessons from bloody battles like the Somme to become the most effective fighting force in the world, which in 1918 decisively defeated the German army. In 1914, warfare looked back to Waterloo; in 1918 it looked forward to Blitzkrieg, and the British army was at the leading edge of this revolution.
A challenging and controversial book, this is based on twenty years of research and draws on the work of leading scholars in the field. Without underestimating the scale of the human tragedy or playing down the disasters, it explodes many myths about the First World War, placing it in its true context of world and military history.
