The tragic slaughter of the trenches is imprinted on modern memory; but it is more difficult to grasp the wider extent and significance of the First World War. This book gives a clear chronological account of the campaigns on the Western and Eastern Fronts and then moves on to investigate areas that many studies ignore - the war poets, the diplomacy of war aims and peace moves, logistics, and 'the experience of the war'.

It was soon seen that `war has nothing to do with chivalry any more', but it was harder to say what the First World War was fought for, or what the combatants gained. Professor Robbins approaches this problem from two angles: he analyses the complex political and diplomatic background to the alliances between the Great Powers; he also explores the mood of Europe between 1914 and 1918 by examining the experience of war from the different standpoints of the nations and individuals caught up in it.