'The most readable, sceptical and original of modern historians' - Michael Foot. A. J. P. Taylor was one of the most acclaimed and uncompromising historians of the twentieth century. In this clear, lively and now-classic account of the "First World War", he tells the story of the conflict from the German advance in the West, through the Marne, Gallipoli, the Balkans and the War at Sea to the offensives of 1918 and the state of Europe after the war. Containing photographs and maps, this an essential history of the war that 'cut deep into the consciousness of modern man'.'Remarkable ...Taylor here manages in some 200 illustrated pages to say almost everything that is important for an understanding and, indeed, intellectual digestion of that vast event' - "Observer". 'It is unlikely that there will be a more satisfactory compact survey of that Armageddon' - "Newsweek". 'What makes Taylor's book outstanding is his capacity to penetrate through the undergrowth of controversy and conflicting interpretation to the central truth'