This first volume of The Cambridge History of the First World War provides a comprehensive account of the war's military history. An international team of leading historians charts how a war made possible by globalization and imperial expansion unfolded into catastrophe, growing year by year in scale and destructive power far beyond that which anyone had anticipated in 1914. Adopting a global perspective, the volume analyses the spatial impact of the war and the subsequent ripple effects that occurred both regionally and across the world. It explores how imperial powers devoted vast reserves of manpower and material to their war efforts and how, by doing so, they changed the political landscape of the world order. It also charts the moral, political and legal implications of the changing character of war and, in particular, the collapse of the distinction between civilian and military targets.

Volume IV of The Cambridge History of War offers a definitive new account of war in the most destructive period in human history. Opening with the massive conflicts that erupted in the mid nineteenth century in the US, Asia and Europe, leading historians trace the global evolution of warfare through 'the age of mass', 'the age of machine' and 'the age of management'. They explore how industrialization and nationalism fostered vast armies whilst the emergence of mobile warfare and improved communications systems made possible the 'total warfare' of the two World Wars. With military conflict regionalized after 1945 they show how guerrilla and asymmetrical warfare highlighted the limits of the machine and mass as well as the importance of the media in winning 'hearts and minds'. This is a comprehensive guide to every facet of modern war from strategy and operations to its social, cultural, technological and political contexts and legacies.

This first volume of The Cambridge History of the First World War provides a comprehensive account of the war's military history. An international team of leading historians chart how a war made possible by globalization and imperial expansion unfolded into catastrophe, growing year by year in scale and destructive power far beyond what anyone had anticipated in 1914. Adopting a global perspective, the volume analyses the spatial impact of the war and the subsequent ripple effects that occurred both regionally and across the world. It explores how imperial powers devoted vast reserves of manpower and material to their war efforts, and how, by doing so, they changed the political landscape of the world order. It also charts the moral, political and legal implications of the changing character of war and, in particular, the collapse of the distinction between civilian and military targets.

Volume II of The Cambridge History of War covers what in Europe is commonly called 'the Middle Ages'. It includes all of the well-known themes of European warfare, from the migrations of the Germanic peoples and the Vikings through the Reconquista, the Crusades and the age of chivalry, to the development of state-controlled gunpowder-wielding armies and the urban militias of the later middle ages; yet its scope is world-wide, ranging across Eurasia and the Americas to trace the interregional connections formed by the great Arab conquests and the expansion of Islam, the migrations of horse nomads such as the Avars and the Turks, the formation of the vast Mongol Empire, and the spread of new technologies – including gunpowder and the earliest firearms – by land and sea.

War is often described as an extension of politics by violent means. With contributions from twenty-eight eminent historians, Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of the Second World War examines the relationship between ideology and politics in the war's origins, dynamics and consequences. Part I examines the ideologies of the combatants and shows how the war can be understood as a struggle of words, ideas and values with the rival powers expressing divergent claims to justice and controlling news from the front in order to sustain moral and influence international opinion. Part II looks at politics from the perspective of pre-war and wartime diplomacy as well as examining the way in which neutrals were treated and behaved. The volume concludes by assessing the impact of states, politics and ideology on the fate of individuals as occupied and liberated peoples, collaborators and resistors, and as British and French colonial subjects.

The Cambridge History of the First World War is a comprehensive, three-volume work which provides an authoritative account of the military, political, social, economic and cultural history of the Great War. Reflecting the very latest research in the field, the volumes provide a comprehensive guide to the course of the war and of how the dynamics of conflict unfolded throughout the world. Volume I surveys the military history showing the brutal realities of a global war among industrialized powers, whilst Volumes II and III explore the social, economic, cultural and political challenges that the war presented to politicians, industrialists, soldiers and civilians. Written by a team of leading international historians, the volumes together reveal the ways in which the war transcended the boundaries of Europe to subsequently transform the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas just as much as Europe itself.

The Cambridge History of the First World War is a comprehensive, three-volume work which provides an authoritative account of the military, political, social, economic and cultural history of the Great War. Reflecting the very latest research in the field, the volumes provide a comprehensive guide to the course of the war and of how the dynamics of conflict unfolded throughout the world. Volume I surveys the military history showing the brutal realities of a global war among industrialized powers, whilst Volumes II and III explore the social, economic, cultural and political challenges that the war presented to politicians, industrialists, soldiers and civilians. Written by a team of leading international historians, the volumes together reveal the ways in which the war transcended the boundaries of Europe to subsequently transform the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas just as much as Europe itself.