Good popular history of World War I?

Not “WW I for Dummies,” but a book that covers it pretty well while being accessible to the average reader. Suggestions?

Not WWI itself, but Dreadnaught by Robert K. Massie is an excellent book that describes the circumstances that lead up to it, the arms raise, and personalities that fueled it. Something everyone interested in WWI needs to read, if only because it’s crucial to understand the causes.

You can always see what is selling at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=world+war+i

This is a great book, and well worth reading, but you’ll need to pick up Massie’s next book Castles of Steel to actually find out what happened at sea in World War One.

I’d go with Hew Strachan’s The First World War as the best one volume history for general reading. John Keegan’s The First World War is also very good as well.

I enjoyed A World Undone by G.J. Meyer, but keep in mind that WWI is deeply complex from any perspective. The number of battles, generals, and heads of state involved is mind-boggling.

You might like the recent Hardcore History podcasts on WWI. The WWI podcasts are collectively called Blueprint for Armageddon, and Dan Carlin does his usual excellent job.

The BBC documentary series The Great War.

I’m reading the Oxford University Press’s The First World War: A Very Short Introduction. Well, reading it in between other projects…

It’s quite short & gives an overview of the whole conflict. Which went beyond the trenches on the Western Front. There’s a brief reading list at the end.

Good for a real beginner.

My recommendation is A Short History of World War I by James Stokesbury. I found that Stokesbury covered all of the significant aspects of the war in a clear and accessible way.

Agreed. I’d also say check out “The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century”, which is usually on youtube.

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman is an excellent book on the very first month of the war.

Another vote for The World Undone. I came to the book as a newbie on the subject and I couldn’t imagine a more well-rounded introduction to the subject.

This!

Thirded. Tuchman is immensely readable.

The thing about Tuchman, and I admit that World War I scholarship isn’t an area I’m all that well read in, is that it’s over 50 years old at this point. Surely our understanding of the war has improved and changed since that book was published.

The First World War, A Complete History, by Martin Gilbert. Along with his WWII chronicle, it’s pretty much just a retelling of events with little commentary, like a textbook. It’s pretty simple and dry, but it sounds like what you’re looking for.

Mostly, The Guns of August just covers that brief period. I love Paul Fussell’s The Great War & Modern Memory because it shows the impact of the Western Front on (mostly) English speaking culture. But it assumes you know the general history. I could keep on listing favorites–but they only describe different bits of the elephant.

Somehow, the reader needs to see the beast whole–if not in detail. Then, one can specialize…

The Sleepwalkers by Clark covers the same topic, is more recent, and is something of a counter-point to Tuchman.

His scholarship is probably better and certainly more up to date, though it isn’t as readable as Tuchman. (the two things are probably somewhat related, Clark really digs into what a complicated clusterfuck the pre-war diplomatic situation was, which makes for a more accurate but harder to follow narrative.)

In Kansas City there’s an excellent museum focused solely on WWI: the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial.

This YouTube channel is following the war week by week 100 years later.

Thanks for all the ideas. My brother and I both enjoy Civil War and WW II books, but we are branching out to the less-popular wars :rolleyes:. I’ve been reading about Korea and staring a WWI thing.