The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century

This is the book that goes with a series that was on PBS. It is a good introduction to the Great War - and has many good photos, maps, charts, and other illustrations. If you are a visual learner, or one who likes to be able to read short, dense blurbs to learn about a subject, then this book's for you! It has references in the back, so that if you want to learn more, you can find what you want there... and many of these items are on the internet if you just do a search using the infos provided.I'd say that if you want to get the most of this book, do a search on the PBS website to find the video (the PBS apple app also has this in it if you search) and watch it with the volume close to hand, so that you can read it before or after watching the video.If you are really hardcore student of the Great War, you should find this book interesting, but then again, you might feel it doesn't go deep enough or has things you already know. In that case, I'd say see if your local library has a copy before you buy it.All in all, this is a great book on the Great War!

As described...a good text companion to a great educational video series.

This book presents WW1 as the awful thing it really was. It covers the events leading up to the war and then its horrors: charging barbed wire fences and machine guns, being blown to pieces by artillery fire, "living" in filthy, lice-ridden, rat-infested, corpse-laden trenches in mud up to the knees. The many pictures helped one to appreciate war's true nature. The book was a tribute to the men who fought and a terrible indictment of those who led, military and civilian. The sacrifice of millions of lives (not to mention the millions whose lives were changed forever) was brought to naught by the short-sighted, vengeance-driven treaty which led to WW11. It certainly gives war a bad name.

Very good summary of the first world war. Easy to read and follow.Photos are a great aid in following the narrative.

fast service at a great price!

Great book and a wonderful seller.,

I had seen the video series from PBS years ago and liked it so much I wanted to add the companion book. That was a good decision.The book was in such good shape I am amazed it was considered "used"!

First off, the authors blame Germany and Austria. New scholarship shows that this was not the case. All shared in the blame. The photos are excellent. However one of the photos labeled railway gun or Big Bertha, I can't remember which was not correct. If they made that mistake in a photo caption what other mistakes did they make. I had high hopes for this book. I put it down pretty quickly and stopped reading.