“A tour de force of scholarship, analysis and narration.… Lloyd is well on the way to writing a definitive history of the First World War.” —Lawrence James, Times The Telegraph • Best Books of the Year The Times of London • Best Books of the Year A panoramic history of the savage combat on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 that came to define modern warfare. The Western Front evokes images of mud-spattered men in waterlogged trenches, shielded from artillery blasts and machine-gun fire by a few feet of dirt. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. It has persisted in our collective memory as a tragic waste of human life and a symbol of the horrors of industrialized warfare. In this epic narrative history, the first volume in a groundbreaking trilogy on the Great War, acclaimed military historian Nick Lloyd captures the horrific fighting on the Western Front beginning with the surprise German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and taking us to the Armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd weaves a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne, Passchendaele, the Meuse-Argonne, and other critical battles, which reverberated across Europe and the wider war. From the trenches where men as young as 17 suffered and died, to the headquarters behind the lines where Generals Haig, Joffre, Hindenburg, and Pershing developed their plans for battle, Lloyd gives us a view of the war both intimate and strategic, putting us amid the mud and smoke while at the same time depicting the larger stakes of every encounter. He shows us a dejected Kaiser Wilhelm II—soon to be eclipsed in power by his own generals—lamenting the botched Schlieffen Plan; French soldiers piling atop one another in the trenches of Verdun; British infantryman wandering through the frozen wilderness in the days after the Battle of the Somme; and General Erich Ludendorff pursuing a ruthless policy of total war, leading an eleventh-hour attack on Reims even as his men succumbed to the Spanish Flu. As Lloyd reveals, far from a site of attrition and stalemate, the Western Front was a simmering, dynamic “cauldron of war” defined by extraordinary scientific and tactical innovation. It was on the Western Front that the modern technologies—machine guns, mortars, grenades, and howitzers—were refined and developed into effective killing machines. It was on the Western Front that chemical warfare, in the form of poison gas, was first unleashed. And it was on the Western Front that tanks and aircraft were introduced, causing a dramatic shift away from nineteenth-century bayonet tactics toward modern combined arms, reinforced by heavy artillery, that forever changed the face of war. Brimming with vivid detail and insight, The Western Front is a work in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman and John Keegan, Rick Atkinson and Antony Beevor: an authoritative portrait of modern warfare and its far-reaching human and historical consequences.

"[A] superb history…so much has been forgotten, including the course of the war in the east across multiple theaters of operation and the strategies pursued by both sides. It is all this and more that Mr. Lloyd has resurrected in compelling detail." —Economist "[H]arrowing…excellent…[a] masterly study." —William Anthony Hay, Wall Street Journal The first major history in fifty years of the often overlooked Eastern Front of the First World War, where a more fluid conflict resulted in the destruction of great empires and the rise of the Soviet Union. Writing in the 1920s, Winston Churchill argued that the First World War on the Eastern Front was “incomparably the greatest war in history. In its scale, in its slaughter, in the exertions of the combatants, in its military kaleidoscope, it far surpasses by magnitude and intensity all similar human episodes.” It was, he concluded, “the most frightful misfortune” to fall upon mankind “since the collapse of the Roman Empire before the Barbarians.” Yet Churchill was an exception, and the war in the east has long been seen as a sideshow to the brutal combat on the Western Front. Finally, with The Eastern Front—the first major history of that arena in fifty years—the acclaimed historian Nick Lloyd corrects the record. Drawing on the latest scholarship as well as eyewitness reports, diary entries, and memoirs, Lloyd moves from the great battles of 1914 to the final collapse of the Central Powers in 1918, showing how a local struggle between Austria-Hungary and Serbia spiraled into a massive conflagration that pulled in Germany, Russia, Italy, Romania, and Bulgaria. The Eastern Front was a vast theater of war that brought about the collapse of three empires and produced almost endless suffering. As many as sixteen million soldiers and two million civilians were killed or wounded in enormous battles that took place across as much as one hundred kilometers. Unlike in the west, where stalemate ruled the day, the war in the east was fluid, with armies embarking on penetrating advances. Lloyd narrates the repeated invasions of Serbia as well as the great battles between Russian, German, and Austrian forces at Tannenberg, Komarów, Gorlice–Tarnów, and the Masurian Lakes. All along, he takes us into the strategy of the generals who decided the war’s course, from the Germans Ludendorff and Hindenburg to the Austro-Hungarian chief, Conrad von Hötzendorf, to the brilliant Russian Brusilov. Perhaps the most radical aspect of the struggle in the east was that the violence was not confined to combatants. The Eastern Front witnessed calculated attacks against civilians that ripped the ethnic and religious fabric of numerous societies, paving the way for the horrors of the Holocaust. Lloyd’s magisterial, definitive account of the war in the east will fundamentally alter our understanding of the cataclysmic events that reshaped Europe and the world.

Literature and the Great War offers a fresh, challenging interpretation of the literature of the period, reappraising the settled assumptions through which war writing has come to be read in recent years.

An up-to-date and concise account of WWI for teachers and students looking for a balanced introduction. It details both the military operations as well as the development of war aims, alliance diplomacy and the war on the home front.

​*** OVER 210,000 WEST POINT MILITARY HISTORY SERIES SETS IN PRINT ​*** World War I marked the end of the old military order and the beginning of the era of mechanized warfare. This is a thorough examination of the campaigns of the "war to end all wars." It analyzes the development of military theory and practice from the prewar period of Bismark's Prussia to the creation of the League of Nations.

..". for my money it's the best history of World War I." - Robert Cowley, "Military Historical Review "The Great War began in Europe on July 28, 1914, one month after the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne. By August 12, the major powers were locked in a conflict of arms that was to become the bloodiest and most costly in human lives the world had seen, and which was to rapidly spread to every part of the globe. Here is a concise, vivid and detailed history of the 1914-18 War that presents general readers with an accurate, intelligent and graphically readable account of the campaigns and battles, along with brilliant portraits of the leaders and generals of all countries involved. Scrupulously fair, this fascinating narrative has established itself over the yaers as the classic account of World War I.

This vivid, detailed history of World War I presents the general reader with an accurate and readable account of the campaigns and battles, along with brilliant portraits of the leaders and generals of all countries involved. Scrupulously fair, praising and blaming friend and enemy as circumstances demand, this has become established as the classic account of the first world-wide war.

During the First World War three quarters of a million British people died – a figure so huge that it feels impossible to give it a human context. Consequently we struggle to truly grasp the impact this devastating conflict must have had on people's day-to-day lives. We resort to looking at the war from a distance, viewing its events in terms of their political or military significance. The Great War: The People's Story is different. Like the all-star ITV series it accompanies, it immerses the reader in the everyday experiences of real people who lived through the war. Using letters, diaries, and memoirs – many of which have never previously been published – Isobel Charman has painstakingly reconstructed the lives of people such as separated newly-weds Alan and Dorothy Lloyd, plucky enlisted factory-worker Reg Evans and proudly independent suffragist Kate Parry Frye. A century on, they here tell their stories in their own words, offering a uniquely personal account of the conflict. The Great War: The People's Story is both a meticulously researched piece of narrative history and a deeply moving remembrance of the extraordinary acts of extremely ordinary people.

With its authoritative reference entries, multiple introductory and perspective essays, primary source documents, detailed chronology, and bibliography, this single-volume reference provides all the key information readers need to understand this monumental conflict. World War I was an epic conflict that toppled centuries-old empires, transformed the Middle East and Russia, and helped elevate the United States to prominence as a world power. In essence, understanding the reasons for and outcomes of the First World War provides a cornerstone for knowledge of all modern history. In World War I: The Essential Reference Guide, detailed reference entries, a comprehensive overview essay, plus additional examinations of the causes and consequences of the conflict provide readers with the context needed to understand all aspects of World War I. Important primary source documents like the Zimmerman Telegram and Balfour Declaration are included and accompanied by explanations that supply readers with key historical perspective. Biographies on major political and military leaders, such as Wilhelm II, Woodrow Wilson, Nicholas II, John Pershing, and Ferdinand Foch, offer insight into the people who played key roles in the conflict. Entries on the key confrontations of the war—many accompanied by maps—showcase the strategies of both sides in their attempts to emerge victorious, and the bibliography presents a wealth of options to students looking to conduct further research on World War I.

Presents a day-by-day chronology of the events of World War I and a biographical dictionary of people involved in the conflict.