Search Results: History -- World War I from I Cannot Live Without Books

Army of Empire: The Untold Story of the Indian Army in World War I by George Morton-Jack
World War I is generally thought of as a European war, with its trench warfare, young poets, and war horses. As a result, the great South Asian story of the war has largely been forgotten, including the 1.5 million men of the Indian Army. The Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs of Britain's Indian Empire played a crucial role in the Allied victory, fighting against the Central Powers in the mud of Flanders, the steaming jungles of Africa, and the baking deserts of the Islamic world.
Army of Empire is a brilliantly original retelling of the First World War, revealing the Indian Army's true place at the heart of global events. Using previously unpublished veteran interviews, historian George Morton-Jack retraces the Indian soldiers' footsteps across the continents, vividly recounting their dangerous missions as secret agents, their eye-opening discoveries of foreign cultures, and the mixed reactions they received from their… Read More

The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East by Eugene Rogan
In 1914, the Ottoman Empire was depleted of men and resources after years of war against Balkan nationalist and Italian forces. But in the aftermath of the assassination in Sarajevo, the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and not even the Middle East could escape the vast and enduring consequences of one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. The Great War spelled the end of the Ottomans, unleashing powerful forces that would forever change the face of the Middle East.
In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Bolstered by German money, arms, and military advisors, the Ottomans took on the Russian, British, and French forces, and tried to provoke jihad against the Allies in their Muslim colonies. Unlike the… Read More

The Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe's Bloodlands by Alexander Watson
In September 1914, just a month into World War I, the Russian army laid siege to the multiethnic fortress city of Przemysl, the Habsburg Empire's most crucial bulwark against invasion. For six months, against storm and starvation, the ragtag garrison bitterly resisted, denying the Russians a quick victory that would have won them the war. Only in March 1915 did the city fall, bringing occupation, persecution, and the first vicious anti-Semitic cleansing to befall twentieth-century East-Central Europe.
In The Fortress, prizewinning historian Alexander Watson tells the story of the pivotal battle for Przemysl, showing how it marked the dawn of total war in Europe and how it laid the roots of the bloody century that followed. This is an unprecedentedly intimate account of the key campaign on the First World War's Eastern Front, in all its horror and human tragedy.
Basic Books, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2020

Sons of Freedom: The Forgotten American Soldiers Who Defeated Germany in World War I by Geoffrey Wawro
The American intervention in World War I is one of the great stories of the twentieth century, and yet it has all but vanished from view. Historians have portrayed the American war effort as largely economic and symbolic. But as prize-winning historian Geoffrey Wawro shows in Sons of Freedom, the French and British armies were on the verge of collapse in 1918, and may well have lost the war without the Doughboys. British commander Field Marshal Douglas Haig judged the Allied victory a "miracle" -- but it was a distinctly American miracle.
Drawing on extensive research in U.S., British, French, German, and Austrian archives, Wawro weaves together details of the politics, diplomacy, battles, strategic deliberations, and the dreadful human cost of the American war effort on the Western Front. Fundamentally revising the history of the First World War and its tense final year, Sons of Freedom also… Read More

The Western Front: A History of the Great War, 1914 - 1918 by Nick Lloyd
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 100-mile zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where millions of 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 through to the armistice of November 1918. Drawing on French, British, German, and American sources, Lloyd creates a kaleidoscopic chronicle of the Marne,… Read More