"Publishing during the 100th Anniversary of World War I , an NYRB Classics Original. The budding young Hungarian artist Bela Zombory-Moldovan was abroad on vacation when World War I broke out in August 1914. Called up by the army, he soon found himself hundreds of miles away, advancing on Russian lines--or perhaps on his own lines--and facing relentless rifle and artillery fire. Badly wounded, he returned to normal life, which now struck him as unspeakably strange. He had witnessed, he realized, the end of a way of life, of a whole world. Recently discovered among private papers and published here for the first time in any language, this extraordinary reminiscence is a deeply moving addition to the literature of the terrible war that defined the shape of the twentieth century"--

The modern Middle East was forged in the crucible of the First World War, but few know the full story of how war actually came to the region. As Sean McMeekin reveals in this startling reinterpretation of the war, it was neither the British nor the French but rather a small clique of Germans and Turks who thrust the Islamic world into the conflict for their own political, economic, and military ends. The Berlin-Baghdad Express tells the fascinating story of how Germany exploited Ottoman pan-Islamism in order to destroy the British Empire, then the largest Islamic power in the world. Meanwhile the Young Turks harnessed themselves to German military might to avenge Turkey's hereditary enemy, Russia. Told from the perspective of the key decision-makers on the Turco-German side, many of the most consequential events of World War I—Turkey's entry into the war, Gallipoli, the Armenian massacres, the Arab revolt, and the Russian Revolution—are illuminated as never before. Drawing on a wealth of new sources, McMeekin forces us to re-examine Western interference in the Middle East and its lamentable results. It is an epic tragicomedy of unintended consequences, as Turkish nationalists give Russia the war it desperately wants, jihad begets an Islamic insurrection in Mecca, German sabotage plots upend the Tsar delivering Turkey from Russia's yoke, and German Zionism midwifes the Balfour Declaration. All along, the story is interwoven with the drama surrounding German efforts to complete the Berlin to Baghdad railway, the weapon designed to win the war and assure German hegemony over the Middle East.

A major reassessment of one of the critical episodes in the cultural history of the twentieth century.

A second volume in a popular alternate history series chronicles the turbulent events of 1915 when the Confederacy, which had won the Civil War, faces a Marxist uprising of its freed slaves while the United States becomes allied with Germany's Kaiser. Reprint.

A U.S. release of a classic memoir by the author of Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It weighs the significance of World War I as it is reflected in memories, works of art, cemeteries and traditions that illuminate humanity's understanding of and relationship to the conflict. Original.

Documents the incidents surrounding a German diplomat's bid for international power that led to America's entry into World War I

Verdun was a battle which lasted ten months and in which at least 700,000 men fell, along a front of 15 miles. This study of the men who fought there shows that Verdun is a key to understanding World War I - a key to the minds of those who waged it, and to the traditions that bound them.

The classic account of the Arab tribes' guerrilla warfare against Turkish forces during World War II and of Lawrence's part in and reflections on that warfare

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.

An epic chronicle of the first World War places an emphasis on the moral dilemmas raised by the war's critics, citing the achievements and associations of famous detractors while exploring how the war's lessons have particular relevance in today's world. By the National Book Award finalist author of King Leopold's Ghost. 75,000 first printing.