Anglo-American relations were transformed during the First World War. Britain was already in long-term economic decline relative to the United States, but this decline was accelerated by the war, which was militarily a victory for Britain, but economically a catastrophe. This book sets out the economic, and in particular, the financial relations between the two powers during the war, setting it in the context of the more familiar political and diplomatic relationship. Particular attention is paid to the British war missions sent out to the USA, which were the agents for much of the financial and economic negotiation, and which are rescued here from underserved historical obscurity.

Anglo-American relations were transformed during the First World War. Britain was already in long-term economic decline relative to the United States, but this decline was accelerated by the war, which was militarily a victory for Britain, but economically a catastrophe. This book sets out the economic, and in particular, the financial relations between the two powers during the war, setting it in the context of the more familiar political and diplomatic relationship. Particular attention is paid to the British war missions sent out to the USA, which were the agents for much of the financial and economic negotiation, and which are rescued here from underserved historical obscurity.

From a bestselling historian, a daringly revisionist history of World War I The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German aims, thereby transforming a Continental conflict into a world war, which it then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather was the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces. That the war was wicked, horrific, and inhuman is memorialized in part by the poetry of men like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, but also by cold statistics. Indeed, more British soldiers were killed in the first day of the Battle of the Somme than Americans in the Vietnam War. And yet, as Ferguson writes, while the war itself was a disastrous folly, the great majority of men who fought it did so with little reluctance and with some enthusiasm. For anyone wanting to understand why wars are fought, why men are willing to fight them and why the world is as it is today, there is no sharper or more stimulating guide than Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War.

In this volume, Koistinen examines war planning and mobilizing in an era of rapid industrialization and reveals how economic mobilization for defense and war is shaped at the national level by the interaction of political, economic, and military institutions and by increasingly powerful and expensive weaponry.

Winner of the World War One Historical Association's 2021 Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Prize Global War, Global Catastrophe presents a history of the First World War as an all-consuming industrial war that forcibly reshaped the international environment and, with it, impacted the futures of all the world's people. Narrated chronologically, and available open access, the authors identify key themes and moments that radicalized the war's conduct and globalized its impact, affecting neutral and belligerent societies alike. These include Germany's invasion of Belgium and Britain's declaration of war in 1914, the expansion of economic warfare in 1915, anti-imperial resistance, the Russian revolutions of 1917 and the United States' entry into the war. Each chapter explains how individuals, communities, nation-states and empires experienced, considered and behaved in relationship to the conflict as it evolved into a total global war. Above all, the book argues that only by integrating the history of neutral and subject communities can we fully understand what made the First World War such a globally transformative event. This book offers an accessible and readable overview of the major trajectories of the global history of the conflict. It offers an innovative history of the First World War and an important alternative to existing belligerent-centric studies. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

The British Empire played a crucial part in the First World War, supplying hundreds of thousands of soldiers and labourers as well as a range of essential resources, from foodstuffs to minerals, mules, and munitions. In turn, many imperial territories were deeply affected by wartime phenomena, such as inflation, food shortages, combat, and the presence of large numbers of foreign troops. This collection offers a comprehensive selection of essays illuminating the extent of the Empire’s war contribution and experience, and the richness of scholarly research on the subject. Whether supporting British military operations, aiding the British imperial economy, or experiencing significant wartime effects on the home fronts of the Empire, the war had a profound impact on the colonies and their people. The chapters in this volume were originally published in Australian Historical Studies, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, First World War Studies or The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.