I want to learn more about WW1. Need a good, non-biased, book. - Page 1

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - I want to learn more about WW1. Need a good, non-biased, book.

Posted: 7/27/2015 12:03:35 PM EDT

Title says it all. I never got to learn anything about history in school other than that there was a big scuffle or two in Europe a while back. I am therefore looking to learn me some new things and am particularly interested in military/war history. I'm looking for a good, non-biased book that goes deeper into the what and why of WWI. I'm not looking for any memoirs or anything, just straight up history books. Textbooks are fine as long as it isn't a one-sided, "written by the victor" or "Ferdinand got dead so some people shot bunch of other people" book. I want to learn the finer details.

Suggestions?

Posted: 7/27/2015 12:10:53 PM EDT

[#1]

Margaret Tuchman: 'The Guns of August'. I found it quite dry reading, but it is supposed to be a very good history on what lead up to ww1.

My favorite ww1 book is Robert Massie's book 'Castles of Steel' It's a very detailed book about the naval side of WW1. Principally follows the Royal Navy, but gives a lot of insight into German navy as well.

Massie also has a book 'Dreadnaught' about the development of the Dreadnought battleships. I have not read it yet.

Posted: 7/27/2015 12:13:34 PM EDT

[#2]

I read World War One: A Layman's Guide by Scott Addington a few months ago. I thought it was a pretty good place to start learning about WW1.

Posted: 7/27/2015 4:58:12 PM EDT

[#3]

Dan carlin has a 27 hour long 6 part podcast (basically audiobook) on WW1 that is balanced and well researched and referenced: http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/

Posted: 7/27/2015 5:06:29 PM EDT

[#4]

Posted: 7/27/2015 6:26:27 PM EDT

[#5]

Quote History

Quoted:
Margaret Tuchman: 'The Guns of August'. I found it quite dry reading, but it is supposed to be a very good history on what lead up to ww1.

My favorite ww1 book is Robert Massie's book 'Castles of Steel' It's a very detailed book about the naval side of WW1. Principally follows the Royal Navy, but gives a lot of insight into German navy as well.

Massie also has a book 'Dreadnaught' about the development of the Dreadnought battleships. I have not read it yet.

View Quote

All three of these are very good books. Dreadnaught from what I remember (read it a few years ago) was more about the build up to the war not the actual Dreadnaught ships themselves. The book focused more on the various naval and political leaders.

A few others that were not bad on the WWI:
War of Attrition: Fighting the First World War by William Philpott
The First World War by John Keegan

If you have Netflix there are a bunch of documentaries on WWI that were added recently. Here are most of them.
Our World War
The First World War From Above
The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of the Empire
The Great War Diary
Churchill's First World War

There is also a 26 part mini series called "The Great War" put out by the BBC in the 1960's that has interviews from actual participants. You can find all 26 episodes on YouTube. Here is episode one.

Posted: 7/29/2015 8:43:08 AM EDT

[#6]

Quote History

Quoted:
If you have Netflix there are a bunch of documentaries on WWI that were added recently. Here are most of them.
Our World War

View Quote

I just started my free trial month and Our World War is actually what sparked this interest. I'll have to check out the others as well.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone. I'm filling up my Amazon cart now.

Posted: 7/29/2015 11:24:15 PM EDT

[#7]

I like his one Storm of steel , written by a German Soldier.

Posted: 7/30/2015 11:34:43 AM EDT

[#8]

If you are interested in the US entry into the war, "The Last Days of Innocence: America at War, 1917-1918" is a good reference. Significantly, it covers a lot of the unsavory stuff that happened on the home front with suppression of dissent and restrictions on freedom of speech; it also covers the over-optimism and sheer ineptitude that characterized a lot of our initial efforts.

World War I is interesting to me because for almost every country involved, it represented a sharp break from the past to modern times, even more than World War II.

Posted: 8/4/2015 11:27:20 AM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:
Dan carlin has a 27 hour long 6 part podcast (basically audiobook) on WW1 that is balanced and well researched and referenced: http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/

View Quote

I also highly recommend this. It's fantastic.

Posted: 8/5/2015 12:20:00 AM EDT

[#10]

Max Hastings' "1914: Catastrophe"

Posted: 8/5/2015 7:52:16 AM EDT

[#11]

I have found many of the WWI history books to be very hard to read as they were written by professional historians whose writing skills are not attuned for the mass market.

One of the things that is interesting about WWI though, is that in many ways it was fought not a whole lot different than the way the Civil War was fought. Much of the transport on all sides was still by animal and most of the infantry fighting was standup mass charges that led to huge numbers of casualties on all sides.

There was still a lot of the nobility involved in running the European side of the wars, and I suspect that contributed to the mass casualty situation as they really did not consider the common soldier as all that valuable.

Posted: 8/5/2015 2:51:36 PM EDT

[#12]

Quote History

Quoted:
Margaret Tuchman: 'The Guns of August'. I found it quite dry reading, but it is supposed to be a very good history on what lead up to ww1.

My favorite ww1 book is Robert Massie's book 'Castles of Steel' It's a very detailed book about the naval side of WW1. Principally follows the Royal Navy, but gives a lot of insight into German navy as well.

Massie also has a book 'Dreadnaught' about the development of the Dreadnought battleships. I have not read it yet.

View Quote

The Guns of August has a number of pretty important errors but the general course of events is well covered. Keegan has a book on it, and if you're more interested in geopolitics than mind-numbing repetitions of slaughter, Martin Gilbert's history is not too bad.

Posted: 8/13/2015 11:52:03 PM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:
Max Hastings' "1914: Catastrophe"

View Quote

I'm reading this book right now. I've read several books on WWI, but so far I would have to say that this is one of the best.

Especially at explaining the stupid way in which it started.

Posted: 8/13/2015 11:53:45 PM EDT

[#14]

Quote History

Quoted:
Dan carlin has a 27 hour long 6 part podcast (basically audiobook) on WW1 that is balanced and well researched and referenced: http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/

View Quote

+1

Posted: 8/14/2015 2:47:48 PM EDT

[#15]

"A Storm in Flanders" by Winston Groom.

Posted: 8/16/2015 9:13:35 AM EDT

[#16]

Quote History

Quoted:

I also highly recommend this. It's fantastic.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
Dan carlin has a 27 hour long 6 part podcast (basically audiobook) on WW1 that is balanced and well researched and referenced: http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/

I also highly recommend this. It's fantastic.

Can't recommend this enough. Very interesting, easy to listen to. The hours just breeze by.

Posted: 8/16/2015 9:20:35 AM EDT

[#17]

Quote History

Quoted:
"A Storm in Flanders" by Winston Groom.

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Good intro book

Alastair Horne's "the price of glory" about Verdun is considered the diffiniative work on the battle, for a slightly contradictory view. John Mosier's "Verdun"

For how the war was fought tactically, On infantry (both volume), Storm Trooper tactics and On artillery are good short reads

Posted: 8/17/2015 11:57:58 PM EDT

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:
Dan carlin has a 27 hour long 6 part podcast (basically audiobook) on WW1 that is balanced and well researched and referenced: http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/

View Quote

I just finished this for a second time.

This last time I created a timeline/mind map that really helped put everything in perspective.

Can't wait to see what he releases next.

Posted: 10/21/2015 9:09:33 PM EDT

[#19]

Quote History

Quoted:
"A Storm in Flanders" by Winston Groom.

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This- he's also the author of Forrest Gump and a veteran.

Add- anything by Lynne MacDonald. She's English, so it may be dry (stiff upper lip and all that) but she goes to the Continent and walks the ground, also interviews people from the area and pours over diaries and letters from the time. Very informative.

Posted: 10/22/2015 8:42:42 PM EDT

[#20]

"Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo.

The thing to remember about WWI is that it was not "The War to End All Wars", but rather the war that, directly or indirectly, led to all the succeeding wars.

MHO, YMMV, etc.

Posted: 10/27/2015 9:46:22 AM EDT

[#21]

Quote History

Quoted:
Max Hastings' "1914: Catastrophe"

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This. It's a great book about the makings of WWI. Its pretty easy to read too, thought its a bit long. One of the best books I've found on the start of the war.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - I want to learn more about WW1. Need a good, non-biased, book.

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