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The First World War

A Complete History

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The First World War

By: Martin Gilbert
Narrated by: Roger Clark
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About this listen

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 officially end nearly five years later. Unofficially, however, it has never ended: Many of the horrors we live with today are rooted in the First World War.

The Great War left millions of civilians and soldiers maimed or dead. It also saw the creation of new technologies of destruction: tanks, planes, and submarines; machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare. It introduced U-boat packs and strategic bombing, unrestricted war on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners. But the war changed our world in far more fundamental ways than these.

In its wake, empires toppled, monarchies fell, and whole populations lost their national identities. As political systems and geographic boundaries were realigned, the social order shifted seismically. Manners and cultural norms; literature and the arts; education and class distinctions; all underwent a vast sea change.

©1994 Martin Gilbert (P)2020 Tantor 20th Century Military Modern War Royalty Imperialism Interwar Period Thought-Provoking Submarine U-Boat World History

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All stars
Most relevant  
Loved it, its the ultimate comprehensive history of the first world war, narrator is exceptional loved all 30+ hours of it.

Absolutely brilliant listening

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This is one of the great books which covers the totality of the First World War. A true masterpiece and something that should be required reading for all that are interested.

Truly excellent

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Narrator is rather annoying, play at 1.5 speed this make it easier on the ear.

A good history of WW1

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Excellent book but the narrator’s peculiar pronunciation of names is most distracting. Nonetheless I’d recommend this to anyone wanting to have a comprehensive overview of The Great War

Excellent but narrator distracts one from the tale

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Most great but s
Slightly idiosyncratic series of pronunciations, particularly of names and places. Not a problem.

Great detail

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Very good and detailed history of the WWI. I enjoyed it. There were very occasional slightly unusual pronunciations of words, but overall the narration I thought was very good and well suited in tone and pace to the subject; I am not sure why some people have complained about the narration, unless they were hoping for some kind of ridiculously over-emoted reading, perhaps as one might read to young children. I personally dislike narrators who are over enthusiastic, as for me it comes across as though they are trying to impose an experience on me, rather than my having my own emotional responses more naturally.

Excellent listening

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This history history iris somewhat different in others I have read or listened to. For example, the cause of the Gallipoli campaign has always be blamed on Churchill, which isn't burned out here, along with other battles that were blamded on specific members of the general staff but turned out to be orders from the overall commander who was French.
My only complaint is the reader who pronunciation of some peoples names and places is totally wrong, General Haigh being one whare the "a" is dropped to give Hiegh with the emphasis on the "i", I found this increasingly annoying as the book went on

An interesting taken on the history of the WWI

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Comprehensive and well written prose but let down by poor pronunciations. Buy the book instead.

Well written, poorly read.

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A year by year approach gives a thorough overview of the war on all its separate fronts. The major flaw is the narration. The place and person name pronunciation is variable to the point of being unidentified in some points. If I didn't know better, it sounds like it's read by AI. The accent is English, but there's no-one born in that country who pronounces (as an example) Hove as "Hov" or Salisbury as "Sall is bury" . Sadly it's distracting.

A comprehensive view

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Interesting and informative, major events covered and individuals personal triumphs and tragedies, excellent audio book

Very Comprehensive

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