Representing the best of cutting-edge scholarship in First World War studies, this anthology demonstrates the possibity of finding common ground in how cultural, social, and military historians study the war. Essays focus on the decisions of commanders, inter-allied negotiations, trench culture, prisoners of war, the sailors' war, key developments along the Eastern Front, and how colonial troops experienced the war. Other essays consider the impact of the war on civilians under occupation, the creation of humanitarian relief missions, as well as how the memory of the war affected postwar...

Once-dominant images of the First World War as a futile contest fought by innocent soldiers and wasteful generals have given way to more sophisticated scholarly analyses. This volume presents some of the most innovative work of this new generation of research on the War to End All Wars. Taking a global and comparative perspective, these essays place the War in a wide global and thematic context, greatly enhancing our understanding of one of the most important and complex events of the 20th Century.