To mark the centennial of World War I, Cambridge University Press is proud to present this Reader featuring excerpts from leading scholarship on the Great War. Each excerpt offers diverse perspectives and unique insight into different aspects of the war—political, social, economic, and historic—from the political failures that ignited conflict, to the struggles countries faced during the aftermath.

In July Crisis, historian Thomas Otte discusses the collapse of Great Power politics that sparked the war; while Jay Winter (who won an Emmy for the PBS/BBC series “The Great War and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century”) and his team of expert contributors delve into political, social, and economic challenges in the 3-volume Cambridge History of the First World War. Bruno Cabanes brings to light the aftermath of the war and the creation of a new form of humanitarianism, while editor Santanu Das’ The Cambridge Companion to Poetry of the First World War examines the works of soldier-poets, women, and children.

Featured in this Reader:

July Crisis: The World’s Descent into War, Summer 1914

Thomas Otte (forthcoming July)

The Cambridge History of The First World War 3 Volume Hardback Set

Edited by Jay Winter (forthcoming April)

The Great War and The Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918—1924

Bruno Cabanes (forthcoming April)

The Cambridge Companion to the Poetry of The First World War

Edited by Santanu Das (Available now)