A definitive Pulitzer Prize-winning recreation of the powderkeg that was Europe during the crucial first thirty days of World War I traces the actions of statesmen and patriots alike in Berlin, London, St. Petersburg, and Paris. Reprint.

In 1914 the Ottoman Empire was depleted of men and resources after years of war against Balkan nationalist and Italian forces. But as the powers of Europe slid inexorably toward war, the Middle East could not escape the vast and enduring consequences of one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. The Great War spelled the end of the Ottomans, unleashing powerful forces that would forever change the face of the Middle East. Here, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Bolstered by German money, arms, and military advisors, the Ottomans took on the Russian, British, and French forces, and tried to provoke Jihad against the Allies in their Muslim colonies. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente inGallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands between the victorious powers, and laid the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the making of the modern Middle East.--From publisher description.

Documents the stories of young American soldiers who fought and died in the aerial battles of World War I, drawing on letters, journals and memoirs to illuminate their diverse backgrounds and experiences. By the award-winning author of The Soldier's Tale.

Recounts the U.S. First Army's astonishing triumph in America's bloodiest battle during World War I, a campaign led by General "Black Jack" Pershing, whose exemplary leadership led to the unlikeliest of victories.

This is a fascinating account of two very different Anzac experiences of World War I. Drawing on letters, diaries, and photographs from his grandfather and great-uncle, Greg Kerr relates the bitter experiences of Hedley Kerr (killed at Gallipoli on April 25th, 1915) and George Kitchin Kerr, who was wounded at Gallipoli and later survived three years in a Turkish prison camp.

A revelatory narrative history of World War I explores its impact on everyday men and women, drawing on diaries and letters by 20 individuals from various countries to present an international mosaic of less-represented perspectives.

A compelling, in-depth account of the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania offers a vivid portrait of early twentieth-century maritime history and the terrible impact of the disaster, the deliberate sinking of the luxury liner by a torpedo fired from a German submarine, on the course of World War I.

A close-up analysis of a pivotal battle of World War I revisits the four-year-long Battle of Ypres, an engagement that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, marked the use of terrible new military tactics and technologies--including poison gas, mines, tanks, and air strikes--and forever changed the way that war would be waged. 50,000 first printing.

Big Bertha, Germany's World War I top secret mobile artillery piece, easily destroyed French and Belgian forts, helping set the stage for trench warfare. In the first days of World War I, Germany unveiled a new weapon - the mobile 42cm (16.5 inch) M-Gerät howitzer. At the time, it was the largest artillery piece of its kind in the world and a closely guarded secret. When war broke out, two of the howitzers were rushed directly from the factory to Liege where they quickly destroyed two forts and compelled the fortress to surrender. After repeat performances at Namur, Maubeuge and Antwerp, German soldiers christened the howitzers 'Grosse' or 'Dicke Berta' (Fat or Big Bertha) after Bertha von Krupp, owner of the Krupp armament works that built the howitzers. The nickname was soon picked up by German press which triumphed the 42cm howitzers as Wunderwaffe (wonder weapons), and the legend of Big Bertha was born. To the Allies, the existence of the howitzers came as a complete surprise and the sudden fall of the Belgian fortresses spawned rumors and misinformation, adding to the 42cm howitzer's mythology. In reality, 'Big Bertha" was but the last in a series of large-caliber siege guns designed by the German Army for the purpose of destroying concrete fortifications. It was also only one of two types of 42cm calibre howitzers built for the army by Krupp and only a small part of the siege artillery available to the German Army at the outset of the war. Such were the successes of the German siege guns that both the French and British Armies decided to field their own heavy siege guns and, after the German guns handily destroyed Russian forts during the German offensives in the east in 1915, the French Army abandoned their forts. However, by 1916, as the war settled into a stalemate, the effectiveness of the siege guns diminished until, by war's end, 'Big Bertha' and the other siege guns were themselves outmoded. This book details the design and development of German siege guns before and during World War I, to include four models of 30.5cm mortars, two versions of 28cm howitzers, and two types of 42cm howitzers (including 'Big Bertha'); in total, eight different types of siege guns. Accompanying the text are many rare, never before published, photographs of 'Big Bertha' and the other German siege guns. Colour illustrations depict the most important aspects of the German siege artillery.