The First World War by Hew Strachan

$12.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

Hew Strachan is one of the world's foremost experts on the Great War of 1914-18. His ongoing three-volume history of the conflict, the first of which was published in 2001, is likely to become the standard academic reference work: Max Hastings called it 'one of the most impressive books of modern histor y in a generation', while Richard Holmes hailed it as a 'towering achievement'. Now, Hew Strachan brings his immense knowledge to a one-volume work aimed squarely at the general reader. The inspiration behind the major Channel 4 series of the same name, to which Hew was chief consultant, "The First World War" is a significant addition to the literature on this subject, taking as it does a uniquely global view of what is often misconceived as a prolonged skirmish on the Western Front. Exploring such theatres as the Balkans, Africa and the Ottoman Empire, Strachan assesses Britain's participation in the light of what became a struggle for the defense of liberalism, and show how the war shaped the 'short' twentieth century that followed it. Accessible, compelling and utterly convincing, this is modern history writing at its finest. ...Show more

The War That Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War by Margaret MacMillan

$30.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

This is the definitive history of the political, cultural, military and personal forces which shaped Europe's path to the Great War. The First World War followed a period of sustained peace in Europe during which people talked with confidence of prosperity, progress and hope. But in 1914, Europe walked into a catastrophic conflict which killed millions of its men, bled its economies dry, shook empires and societies to pieces, and fatally undermined Europe's dominance of the world. It was a war which could have been avoided up to the last moment - so why did it happen? Beginning in the early nineteenth century, and ending with the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, award-winning historian Margaret MacMillan uncovers the huge political and technological changes, national decisions and - just as important - the small moments of human muddle and weakness that led Europe from peace to disaster. This masterful exploration of how Europe chose its path towards war will change and enrich how we see this defining moment in our history. ...Show more

1914: Fight the Good Fight: Britain, the Army and the Coming of the First World War by Allan Mallinson

$25.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

'No part of the Great War compares in interest with its opening', wrote Churchill. 'The measured, silent drawing together of gigantic forces, the uncertainty of their movements and positions, the number of unknown and unknowable facts made the first collision a drama never surpassed...In fact the War wa s decided in the first twenty days of fighting, and all that happened afterwards consisted in battles which, however formidable and devastating, were but desperate and vain appeals against the decision of fate. 'One of Britain's foremost military historians has written a significant new history of the origins - and the opening first few weeks fighting - of what would become known as 'the war to end all wars'. Intensely researched and convincingly argued, Allan Mallinson explores and explains the grand strategic shift that occurred in the century before the war, the British Army's regeneration after its drubbings in its fight against the Boer, its almost calamitous experience of the first twenty days' fighting in Flanders, and the point at which the British Expeditionary Force - the 'Old Contemptibles' - took up the pick and the spade in the middle of September 1914, changing the war from one of movement into the now familiar image of the trenches and the coming of the Territorials, Kitchener's 'Pals', and ultimately the conscripts - and of course the poets. And with them, at sense of pity and of futility. An ex-infantry and -cavalry officer, Mallinson brings his experience as a professional soldier to bear on the individuals, circumstances and events and the result is a vivid, compelling new history of the beginnings of the conflict - and one that speculates - tantalizingly - on what might have been... ...Show more

Into The Silence : The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis

$20.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

A monumental work of history, biography and adventure - the First World War, Mallory and Mount Everest. For Mallory as for all of his generation, death was but 'a frail barrier that men crossed, smiling and gallant, every day'. As climbers they accepted a degree of risk unimaginable before the war. Wha t mattered now was how one lived, and the moments of being alive. While the quest for Mount Everest may have begun as a grand imperial gesture, it ended as a mission of revival for a country and a lost generation bled white by war. In a monumental work of history and adventure, Davis asks not whether George Mallory was the first to reach the summit of Everest, but rather why he kept climbing on that fateful day. ...Show more

The Other Anzacs: Nurses at War 1914-1918 by Peter Rees

$25.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good

I had my right arm under a leg, which I thought was [the patient's], but when I lifted it I found to my horror that it was a loose leg with a boot and a puttee on it. It was one of the orderly's legs which had been blown off and had landed on the patient's bed. The next day they found the trunk about 20 yards away. By the end of The Great War, 45 Australian and New Zealand nurses had died in overseas service and more than 200 had been decorated. These were women who left for war on an adventure, but were soon confronted with remarkable challenges for which their civilian lives could never have prepared them. They were there for the horrors of Gallipoli and they were there for the savagery the Western Front. Within 12 hours of the slaughter at Anzac Cove they had more than 500 horrifically injured patients to tend on one crammed hospital ship, and scores of deaths on each of the harrowing days that followed. Every night was a nightmare. Their strength and humanity were remarkable. Using diaries and letters, Peter Rees takes us into the hospital camps, wards, and tent surgeries on the edge of some of the most horrific battlefronts of human history. But he also allows the friendships and loves of these courageous and compassionate women to enrich their experiences, and ours. This is a very human story from a different era, when women had not long begun their quest for equality and won the vote. They were on the frontline of social change as well as war, and the hurdles they had to overcome and the price they paid, personally and professionally, make them a unique group in Anzac history. Profoundly moving, The Other Anzacs is story of extraordinary compassion and courage shown by a group of Australian and New Zealand women whose contribution to the Anzac legend has barely been recognized in history. Peter Rees has changed our understanding of that history forever. ...Show more

Harry's War by Harry Drinkwater

$12.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

'I saw several fellows fall, one fellow coughing up blood and all the time, bullets were hacking about me. I ran for about 70 yards carrying with me all the Lewis gun things I had brought up and dropped breathless into a shell hole headlong onto a German who had been dead for months.' Harold Drinkwater was not supposed to go to war. He was told he was half an inch too short. But, determined to fight for king and country, he found a battalion that would take him and was soon on his way to the trenches of the Somme. As the war dragged on, Harry saw most of the men he joined up with killed around him. But, somehow, he survived. Soldiers were forbidden from keeping a diary so Harry wrote his in secret, recording the horrendous conditions and constant fear, as well as his pleasure at receiving his officer's commission, the joy of his men when they escaped the trenches for the Italian Front and the trench raid for which he was awarded the Military Cross. Harry writes with such immediacy it is easy to forget that a hundred years have passed. He is by turns wry, exhausted, annoyed, resigned and often amazed to be alive. Never before published, Harry's War is a moving testament to one man's struggle to keep his humanity in the face of unimaginable violence. ...Show more

Gallipoli: Attack from the Sea by Victor Rudenno

$20.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

The Gallipoli campaign of 191415 is one of the events of the First World War that continues to seize imaginations today. Of particular fascination, and until now largely overlooked in historical accounts, are the naval dimensions of the campaign. This absorbing book provides the only account of the comp lete Allied submarine and related German U-boat activity, integrated with a thorough analysis of the strategies and actions of all land, sea, and air forces. Incorporating patrol and technical reports and personal testimonies, Victor Rudenno's gripping narrative does full justice to the dramatic and inspirational battles in the Dardanelles. ...Show more

The Forgotten General: New Zealand's World War I Commander Major-General Sir Andrew Russell by Jock Vennell

$12.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: good

The Forgotten General highlights the courage, intelligence and determination of an exceptional New Zealander. Major-General Sir Andrew Russell was a distinguished soldier and a dedicated leader of men. He was among the top-ranked divisional commanders in the British armies that fought on the Western Fro nt in World War I. He has been described as 'the one military commander of genius that New Zealand produced in the twentieth century. Yet little of his story is known. Born into pioneer farming stock, Russell's early days were spent on sheep stations in the Hawke's Bay region; he was educated at Harrow and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and later served in the British Army in India and Burma. When World War I broke out, Russell commanded the New Zealand brigade that served with distinction at Gallipoli. He was subsequently knighted and given command of the 20,000-strong New Zealand Division that under his leadership became one of the finest fighting formations on the Western Front. The Forgotten General, however, is not just about a consummate military commander. It also tells the story of the men he led through four unbroken years of war-starting with the raw and inexperienced brigade that arrived on Gallipoli in May 1915 and finishing with the lite division at the spearhead of the British counter-offensive that finally ended the war on the Western Front. ...Show more

The Kia ora Coo-ee. The Magazine for the Anzacs in the Middle East 1918 by David Kent

$30.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good

The Unknown Soldier by Neil Hanson

$10.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

Of all the million British dead of the First World War, only one - the Unknown Soldier - was ever returned to his native land. An anonymous symbol of all those lost without trace in the carnage of the battlefields, he was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey amid an outpouring of grief that brought the who le nation to a standstill, far outweighing even the emotion expressed over the death of Princess Diana over eighty years later. Inspired by this example, almost every combatant nation buried its own Unknown Soldier and the graves became the focus of a pilgrimage that still continues today. Drawing on largely unpublished letters and diaries, Neil Hanson has resurrected the lives and experiences of three unknown soldiers - a Briton, a German and an American. Every word is based on the testimony of those who fought, those who died and those who mourned. Few books have ever shown the terrible reality of warfare in such compelling, unforgettable detail, or told such a moving story of human life and loss. Amid all their sufferings, the common humanity of the men and their loved ones shines through. Each soldier lives on in the memory of his family to this day. ...Show more

The Roses of No Man's Land by Lyn MacDonald

$25.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

1918: The Year of Victories by Martin Marix Evans

$10.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good