The Great War Retold

Books about World War I have made a resurgence, and the best introduction among them is The Western Front: Battle Ground and Home Front in the First World War, by T. Hunt Tooley. Despite its somewhat misleading title, The Western Front masterfully covers numerous aspect of the war, including the pre-war diplomatic crises, the growing glorification of violence in European culture, the bloody battles of the Marne, Verdun, and the Somme, wartime restrictions on civil liberties, and the war’s contributions to the growth of government.