It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would end officially almost five years later. Unofficially, it has never ended: the horrors we live with today were born in the First World War. The Great War left millions of civilians and soldiers maimed or dead. It also left behind new technologies of death: tanks, planes, and submarines;...

World War I was a bloodletting so vast and unprecedented that for a generation it was known simply as the Great War. Casualty lists reached unimagined proportions as the same ground -- places like Ypres and the Somme -- was fought over again and again. Other major bloody battles remain vivid in memory to this day: Gallipoli and the Battle of Jutland are but two examples. Europe was at war with itself, and the effect on Western civilization was profound,...

A century has passed since the outbreak of World War I, yet as military historian Hew Strachan argues in this brilliant and authoritative new book, the legacy of the "war to end all wars" is with us still. The First World War was a truly global conflict from the start, with many of the most decisive battles fought in or directly affecting the Balkans, Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. Even more than World War II, the First World War continues to shape...

Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman has brought to life again the people and events that led up to Worl War I. With attention to fascinating detail, and an intense knowledge of her subject and its characters, Ms. Tuchman reveals, for the first time, just how the war started, why, and why it could have been stopped but wasn't. A classic historical survey of a time and a people we all need to know more about, THE GUNS OF AUGUST...

North Carolina and the two World Wars provides readers with an introduction to and overview of the state's involvement in these two pivotal events in the twentieth century. It is not intended to be a comprehensive history of the subject.

John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps is a landmark in spy and adventure fiction, first published in 1915 and still regarded as one of the most thrilling tales of its kind. Introducing the now-iconic hero Richard Hannay, the novel set the stage for generations of espionage stories and remains a gripping classic of suspense. The adventure begins when Hannay, recently returned to London, encounters a mysterious stranger who claims to possess vital intelligence...

France, 1916: Artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his young wife, Sophie, to fight at the front. When their small town falls to the Germans in the midst of World War II, Edouard's portrait of Sophie draws the eye of the new Kommandant. As the officers dangerous obsession deepens, Sophie will risk everything--her family, her reputation, and her life--to see her husband again. Almost a century later, Sophie's portrait is given to Liv Halston by her young...

Examination of World War I and the major events of the war. Discussion of how the war led to the shaping of a new world, to strategies of warfare and to methods of peacemaking. Identifies key figures and their influence.