Includes bibliographical references (pages 228-230).
ISBN 0 7100 7575 8 Pbk: £1.60.
War, the liberator -- Patriotic war -- Inevitable war -- Imaginary war -- War on war -- War is declared -- From movement to stagnation -- Strong points and weak points -- Verdun and the great battles -- Cannon fodder and the new art of war -- Styles of war: direct and indirect -- World war and total war -- The possible and the impossible -- Tensions new and old -- Crises of war -- Revolutionary peace, compromise peace, victorious peace -- Between war and crusade -- The illusions of victory.
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This radically new interpretation of the First World War and its causes, by one of the most brilliant of France's modern historians, reflects a new understanding of the nature of war, and its effects on society. Ferro sees the war as a natural response to pressures built into European society, and describes how revolutionary tension which was apparently submerged in 1914 burst out again in 1917. He includes much original material on the way the war was fought, and the social impact of the new technology, but the main focus of his interest is on social forces and movements rather than battles and events. He shows why men went to war, and why the world which they found after it was ended was totally transformed.