WW1 Book / History Note:  I have had a fascination concerning WW1 since my high school days.  One of my history teachers conveyed total lack of respect for this significant era in world history.  He could wait to talk about the horrors of WW2.  I remember calling him out on this travesty and was promptly sent to the principal’s office. 

WW1 caused the downfall of four monarchies: Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary and Russia.  Due to the cruel methods used during the war and the losses suffered, WW1 caused a lot of bitterness among nations, which also greatly contributed to WW2 decades later.  After WW1, the world changed drastically. One of the ways it changed was economical.  Most of Europe got a big debt after the war including Germany and Russia. One of the only countries to come out of the war richer was the USA because they did not get involved right away.  During WW1 (1914-1918), large numbers of women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example in munitions factories.  Many changes happened within the arts, music, business, travel and society.  It has been stated that the 20^th Century really came into being with the onset of WW1.

Below are books I own on the topic of WW1.  I highly recommend them all.

·         Dreadnought by Robert K. Massie

·         The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman

·         The Great Silence by Juliet Nicolson

·         1915 – The Death of Innocence by Lyn Macdonald

·         The First World War by John Keegan

·         1913 – An End and a Beginning by Virginia Cowles

·         The First Air War / 1914-1918 by Lee Kennett

·         To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild

·         The Great Way & Modern Memory by Paul Fussell

·         Some Desperate Glory – The First World War the Poets Knew by Max Egremont

·         War Horse by Michael Morpurgo

·         1913 – In Search of the World Before the Great War by Charles Emmerson

·         The Beauty & the Sorrow – An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund

·         Tolkien and the Great War by John Garth

·         Silent Night: The Story of the WW1 Christmas Truce – by Stanley Weintraub