[KosmicKitty]

Many thanks!!

[TADSLOS]

I read “A Naval History of WWI” by Paul G. Halpern a few months ago. Comprehensive and lots of navy speak detail. It’s amazing how much WWI naval action took place around the globe that you may have never heard of.

[Theoria]

Might wanna cancel the other summer reads. But, worth it.
The Origins of the War of 1914--Luigi Albertini

[octex]

Wings

All Quiet on the Western Front

[Eric Pode of Croydon]

Any of several excellent books by the British historian Lyn MacDonald are well worth the effort to track down.

They Called It Passchendaele
The Roses of No Man's Land
Somme
1914: The Days of Hope
1914-1918: Voices and Images of the Great War
1915: The Death of Innocence
To the Last Man: Spring 1918

Adam Hochschild's "To End All Wars" covers the war on the European home fronts and tells many stories the battlefield histories have ignored.

[Gefn]

The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

All Quiet on the Western Front

The First World War by John Keegan

And I’m going to throw in because its Hemingway.....
A Farewell to Arms

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Ken Follett’s “Fall of Giants” (1st of a 3 part trilogy about the 20th century) is a great historical fiction read.

Scott Anderson’s “Lawrence in Arabia” (yes, that’s “in” and not “of”) distills the essence of T.E. Lawrence’s magnificent (but very difficult) “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” into a readable format. It deals almost exclusively with the Middle East and therefore will not give the background necessary to understand much of the main European facets of the War, but it certainly broadened my understanding of the the precursors of the current unstable Middle East situation.

[afraidfortherepublic]

War Horse?

[The Great RJ]

Plan a trip to Kansas City to visit the National WW-I Museum.

[eddiespaghetti]

Holger H. Herwig, The First World War - Germany
and Austria.

Barbara Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram.

Max Hastings, Catastrophe - 1914 (not sure of
exact title).

[gura]

http://www.amazon.com/The-War-World-Twentieth-Century-Conflict/dp/0143112392

[Rockingham]

I suggest the work of two conservatives: The First World War, by John Keegan; and The Pity Of War: Explaining World War I, by Niall Ferguson.

Keegan, who died recently, was a leading military historian, and his book is a superb survey of the war as military history. In contrast, Ferguson, by training an academic economist, devotes his book to an analysis of the economic and strategic factors that drove the war.

Notably, both books offered some revisionist conclusions. Keegan mostly rehabilitated General Douglas Haig's extraordinarily costly attacks on the Somme, while Ferguson treats British involvement in the war as a grave mistake that directly led to the long stalemate, massive loss of life, and political disruptions that the war set in motion.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August” and “The Zimmerman Telegraph”.

[My Guns Never]

Joseph E. Persico’s Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918 World War I and Its Violent Climax

[buridan]

Churchill’s The World Crisis is a great multi-volume treatment.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Isn’t Carlin great? His “Common Sense” podcast is also good.

As for books, “The Price of Glory” by Alistair Horne about Verdun is amazing. Read about the fighting in the tunnels under Fort Vaux and you’ll never trash talk French fighting spirit again. Also “In Flanders Field: The 1917 Offensive” by Leon Wolff, about the sheer idiocy of the high command, sending hundreds of thousands of men to death and mutilation for a few thousand yards gain. Truly horrifying.

[Bobalu]

BBC made a huge documentary of WW1.
Over 20 episodes....very good.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Documentaryprogramme/videos

[Qatar-6]

The First Day on the Somme

By Martin Middlebrook

[SERE_DOC]

For a book on the aftermath of WWI, I would look for something on the "Bonus Army" and the treatment of veterans.

Not too many folks have read, of know of this but it is horrific what was perpetrated against WWI vets.

And the willingness of some to throw their Oath in the rubbish bin.

And "War Is A Racket," by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC 1935

[Skooz]

Ditto on the Massie books.

Also,

Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings.

The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World by Holger H. Herwig

[JHL]

The Good Soldier Schweik, by Jaroslav Hasek. Hilarious book and a real classic. Just a fun read, but an interesting perspective from the common soldier's point of view.