World War One: A Short History Norman Stone, 2009 This recent book is for the general reader who wants a very short introduction to the cataclysmic events of 1914-1918 while at the same time gaining an understanding of the causes of the war and of how the outcome of the war ultimately led to its [...]

The First World War Hew Strachan, 2005 Strachan is one of the leading scholarly authorities on World War I and this book is a synthesis of his life work that went into his magisterial three-volume work published in 2000.  This book makes the war understandable to the general reader and is particularly strong on including [...]

Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War Robert K. Massie (New York: Random House, 1991) Dreadnought tells the narrative history of the German-British naval competition that was one of the contributing factors to the build-up in international tensions that finally erupted in World War I.  Concentrating on the personalities involved, Massie’s book [...]

Europe’s Last Summer:  Who Started the Great War in 1914? David Fromkin (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004; paperback edition, Vintage Books, 2005) Europe’s Last Summer argues the thesis that Germany and Austria-Hungary deliberately started what was to become the First World War – but each was intent on starting a different war, i.e., Austria against Serbia [...]

A Short History of World War I James L. Stokesbury, 1981 Now somewhat overtaken by subsequent research, this book has the great advantage of covering all the major events of the war and keeping them in perspective for the lay reader.  A very good summary but the serious student will want more in-depth analysis of [...]

1914-1918: The History of the First World War David Stevenson, 2011 Making use of recently available archival material, David Stevenson revises some of the standard opinions about the war.  It is a highly competent analysis of the causes, course and impact of the war.  Stevenson is a distinguished British historian and makes good use of archival [...]