World War I Anniversary Commemorated with new Digital Collection
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire invaded Serbia in retaliation to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28. By the end of the war in 1918, some 16 million people had been killed and the maps of Europe and the Middle East were redrawn. To help commemorate one of the deadliest conflicts in human history, we are pleased to present our newest digital image collection: World War I Military Portraits.
Here, we also offer a selective list of titles about the Great War.
To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam Hochschild is a sweeping, elegantly written history of World War I that pays as much attention to conscientious objectors and suffragettes on the home front as it does to front line heroics and vicious battles.
The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
The narrative begins with the funeral of Edward VII of the United Kingdom in 1910, followed by the pre-war military planning of various great powers. After a discussion of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Tuchman recounts the battles of the first month of the war in incredible detail.
Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis recounts the three British expeditions that set out to climb Everest between 1921 and 1924. Those expeditions consisted of 24 men, all but six of whom had served, either as soldiers or medics, in World War I. Davis describes the horrors of trench warfare in as much detail as the attempts on Everest that occurred less than a decade later.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T. E. Lawrence is a classic autobiographical account of his time as a liaison officer during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, when he became known as Lawrence of Arabia.
A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin examines how and why the Allied powers divided up the Middle East after the end of World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Fromkin contends that this redrawing of the map set the stage for the next century of political, ethnic and religious conflict in the region.
Good-bye to All That by Robert Graves records the events of his life up to the age of thirty-three when he left his native land for Marjorca. He provides a devastating picture of what the war was like, and what it did to himself and his generation.