THE FIRST WORLD WAR

474 pages

With 'The First World War' John Keegan, fulfills a lifelong ambition to write the defenative account of the Great War for our generation.  Probing the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict,  Keegan takes us behind the scenes of the negotiation among Europe's crowned heads and ministers, and their doomed efforts to defuse the crisis.  The hear of Keegan's narrative is his analysis of the military conflict.  He recreates the nightmarish engagements at Verdun, the Somme and Gallipoli, and sheds new light on the strategies and tactics employed, particularly the contribution of geography and technology.