World war 1 biography books
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17 First World War books recommended bygd our military experts
5th May, in Military
There are many books on World War inom, covering everything from individual battles to the particular heroic deeds of soldiers faced with the horrors of modern warfare. Here our authors choose their favourite war memoirs and strategic military tomes which offer a better understanding of both the conflict and the lives impacted by it.
Nothing of Importance by Bernard Adams. Eight months in the trenches with a 1st Royal Welsh Fusilier.
Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden. A ‘compassionate yet unsentimental’ autobiography from France’s frontlines.
The Somme by Gary Sheffield. From the battle’s strategy to the experiences of everyday soldiers.
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain. A young woman and her entire generation are changed forever bygd The Great War.
The War the Infantry Knew bygd Captain Dunn. First published in a tiny print run in and now a cla
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The best books on World War I
With a hundred years of perspective and lots of historical research done, can we now say what World War I was about?
No, I don’t think we can. I think that’s what makes it interesting, that there still isn’t much consensus about why it was fought, how it was fought, how it ended, and its consequences. All of those remain contested ground. The centenary of the last four years has shown there are still a wide variety of views about all those aspects, which for a historian is of course fantastic.
What kind of different views are there?
An obvious one is the difference between people who think that the First World War was caused by German aggression and those who think it was all a terrible accident and that the world slipped into war. That’s the view of Christopher Clarke’s book, The Sleepwalkers, which was published in
The debate about the origins of the First World War started even before the war broke out, and has been raging more or less e
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World War One is well known for its incredible cultural impact across a range of mediums. A great deal of important changes in art and literature came about because of the conflict, particularly the necessity of reflecting the brutal realities of the bloodshed.
There is a wide canon of literature that spans the war and its aftermath, and below we have listed 15 of some of the best novels and memoirs about the conflict.
First hand memoirs:
1. Robert Graves &#; Goodbye To All That
Graves&#; autobiography covers his World War One experience, in which he served as a lieutenant and then captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, alongside another literary giant, Siegfried Sassoon.
Goodbye to All That provides a detailed description of trench warfare, including the tragic incompetence of the Battle of Loos and the bitter fighting in the first phase of the Somme Offensive.
2. Siegfried Sassoon &#; The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston
The trilogised &#;fictional autobiogr