I enjoyed the “The Guns of August” back in the day.

The best popular history of the war I can think of is Hew Strachan's, although some people don't like it's emphasis on big events

I cannot recommend MacMillan's The War That Ended Peace enough. For fiction, maybe try Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms?

Ill look into both books, thanks

If you are interested in how people at home coped during WWI, try the last Anne of Green Gables book Rilla of Ingleside

It's a different type of novel than most recommended here, but it covers the full span of the war, how it impacted families, rationing, suffrage, wartime elections, war weddings, war babies etc.

There's a great bit where one family locks their uncle in a barn and won't let him out until he promises to vote for a particular party

Timothy Findley’s “The Wars”!

I personally would recomend The Absolutist by John Boyne.

Have you read "Birdsong" by Sebastian Faulks?

Time and Time again but Ben Elton is a great book set during WW1 although the focus is very much on the start of the war (and trying to avoid it) rather than the conflict itself.

{{the First World War by Alan woods}}

If you're interested in medicine at all, my book club just finished The Facemaker by Lindsey Fitzharris which is a light biography of a plastic surgeon durring WW1 and the effects the war had on modern plastic surgeries creation and advancement. IMO an easy read and short read for non-fiction and also includes real life diagrams and case photos from some of the soldier's recovery.

Historical fiction - Derek Robinsons RFC novels “Goshawk Squadron” “War Story” “Hornet’s Sting”

Great stuff

Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger is a harrowing read, really fantastic book.

> Im also interested in the way ww1 has affected art, culture, society, etc, and i would be interested in reading a book about that if it exists.

Finally! A request where I can answer with my niche interest rec! :)))

"Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest" by Wade Davis is a book about how World War affected mountaineering. It's, as I said, very niche yet very interesting topic, and the book is one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. It has a big section about the war itself, describing how different important figures of British mountaineering survived (or not) in trenches, than turns to the main subject - the conquest of Everest.

I can highly recommend Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy, which features the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. There is a film of the first book, which was also good and quite faithful.

All Quiet on the western front, Wharton a Son at the Front, McMeek July 1914.

I went to the war museum in Ieper, Belgium and bought the Penguin book of First World War stories. Imo a great selection of fictional stories about the First world war in different aspects and written by authors during and (long) after the First World War.

Another very interesting non-fictional read is remembering war by Jay Winter, which fits within your interest about how things are affected by the World War. In this case how it is remembered and so how the perception of the war changed during the years after.

r/askhistorians has a pretty nice list on the sidebar that i’ve picked a few from.

Out of what I’ve read from there I’d say Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger on the short end and Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings on the longer end but they might have something more closely related to what you’re looking for. I see a cultural memory section with a few about WWI’s representation in media but I’m not sure that fully fits what you’re looking for

The World undone

"The Guns of August" bu Barbara Tuchman is the seminal work on the start of the First World War. It covers such a short amount of calendar time, basically 1 month, but it goes into exhaustive detail on the communications & secret alliances that caused the event.

Any history course would always start with that work.

The Bandy Papers. Well researched, historically accurate absurdist humor, from the viewpoint of a first world War pilot.

Now after that, while it isnt a book, if you want a well told narrative on WW1 then look for Dan Carlin's Hardcore History series "Blueprint for Armageddon". It does a masterful job of telling the WW1 story.

I have a pretty good knowledge base on the subject, but I generally prefer non-fiction:

• The guns of august (tuchmann) -- well written, but extremely out of date. Book was written in the 60s and isn't really taken as a source now.

• The Proud Tower (tuchmann) -- A portrait of the world just before WW1. Really interesting as it highlights the things the war would alter.

• The Somme (Hart) -- Absolutely massive account of the pivotal 1916 battle.

• The Great Influenza (Barry) -- Book about the end of the war and how it was influenced by the massive plague raging through the world at the end of the war.

• How I filmed the War (Mains) -- travellogue and memior of a ww1 era camera operator who went to the front lines and filmed the battles as they happened. If you've ever seen that big old video of a mine going off under a hill side, this is the guy who filmed it.

• Gallipoli (FitzSimmons) -- Book about the 1915 battle. I didn't really love it but it was informative.

• War of Attrition (Philpott) -- academic book about the use of attritional strategies in ww1

• Three Armies on the Somme (Philpott) -- academic book about the tactics of the french, german, british troops in 1916

• a world undone (Meyer) -- Probably the best place to start, as this is a comprehensive chronology of the war, covering all the major battles like loos, verdun, passchendaele, etc.

• The Sleepwalkers (Clark) -- history book about the situation in europe just prior to the war, and trying to determine who actually started the war in the first place.

• A Storm in Flanders (Groom) -- specifically focuses on the so called "Ypres Salient", an extremely difficult section where the fighting was intense pretty much the whole war continuiously. Includes descriptions of the first use of gas warfare at the 2nd battle of Ypres.

• Breakdown (Downing) -- academic text about the prevalence and treatment of shell shock, specifically with regards to the battle of the somme

• The First World War (keegan) -- like a world undone, this is a general summary of the war.

• Castles of Steel (Massie) -- huge text, covers almost every aspect of the navel aspect of ww1, including the huge battle of jutland. Very well written and quite an enjoyable read as well as informative.

• Fighting the Great War at Sea (Friedman) -- TBH not as good as Massie's book. I was hoping it was more about tactics and technology of the battleships, but instead it focuses more on the logistics of blockade.

• Pandora's Box (Leonhard) -- overview of the war written by a german author, which is unusual, since most english language texts use primarily english sources.

• Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror (Poole) -- art history account of the ways that modern horror traces threads back to the experiences of people in ww1. More a series of essays than a comprehensive text.

• Imperial Germany and War, 1871-1918: Modern War Studies -- deep dive into the tactics and equipment development between the wars the german empire fought at the turn of the century.

• The Woman's Hour (The Great fight to win the vote) -- concurrently with the War in europe, US women were winning their right to vote.

• Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris (Kershaw) -- biography of hitler, includes his time and service in ww1, as well as how that experience affected him and his later views.

• The Coming of the Third Reich (Evans) -- Bridges the time between WW1 and WW2, helps elucidate how the failures of ww1 set the groundwork for ww2.

• The Red Flag: A history of Communism (Priestland) -- history of communism, which obviously plays a big part as to why the end of the war happened the way it did with the Russian Empire collapsing.

• Dead Wake: The last crossing of the lusitania (Larson) -- Account of the sinking of the Lusitania, which was pivotal for bringing the US into the war on the allied side.

• The White War: LIfe and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1918 (Thompson) -- Good account of the small Italian Front of the war, which was fought in very mountanous terrain and had many of it's own miseries.

And I think that's all I have in my library. There are a few I remember reading but couldn't find the author/title for, but this should get you started.

Looking at the list, I wish I had some more dedicated texts to what the home front was like, and more texts specifically focusing on the ways the war empowered women. Something I should look for.

edit: I highlighted the ones most relevant to your query regarding arts and culture. I can also suggest The Modern Scholar: WW1: The Great War and th World it Made lecture series, which has serveral excellent lectures on the ways the war affected different types of art.

oh, I also remembered this really lovely little french book called "A Very Long Engagement", a fiction book about a young woman desperate to find her lover in the years directly after the war ended. Really quite a good read, I loved every page. There's a movie as well, and it's also quite enjoyable.

If you are interested in the naval aspects of WW1 (which are often overshadowed by the trench warfare of the western front) then I highly recommend two books by Robert Massie: Dreadnought, which is about the naval buildup to WW1 and the shift from older battleships to newer all-big-gun ships (named for the first one, HMS Dreadnought), and the sequel Castles of Steel, which is about the actual war.

Generals Die in Bed was one I liked

I don't think tha'ts really true any more. The Guns of August is nearly 60 years old at this point. WW1 Scholarship has come a long way since then.

The thing about the Guns of August, though, is that it's just a * pleasure* to read. It's such a rare feat to find good history books that are actually enjoyable page-turners, and The Guns of August is definitely that.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque is excellent.

Hello. Per rule 3.3, please post book recommendation requests in /r/SuggestMeABook or in our Weekly Recommendation Thread. Thank you.

Thanks! I will def be checking these out