The First World War
A Complete History
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The First World War
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Narrated by:
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Roger Clark
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By:
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Martin Gilbert
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 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The First World War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 27-10-20
Absolutely brilliant listening
Loved it, its the ultimate comprehensive history of the first world war, narrator is exceptional loved all 30+ hours of it.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- R. T. Harris
- 26-05-24
A good history of WW1
Narrator is rather annoying, play at 1.5 speed this make it easier on the ear.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. P. G. Amos
- 29-01-22
An interesting taken on the history of the WWI
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
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Timbo
- 11-08-21
Excellent but narrator distracts one from the tale
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
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J F Jamieson
- 01-02-24
Great detail
Most great but s
Slightly idiosyncratic series of pronunciations, particularly of names and places. Not a problem.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- STEVE
- 03-12-20
Substandard Narrator
I agree with previous comments. Gilbert’s book on WW1 is an absolute classic and worthy of a far better rendition than this funerial, over-pompous, apparently sedated presentation. You really must take a stricter view on this aspect - awful! That said, the book is such well-written history that it survives even your deplorable version.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- GNMortensen
- 05-04-21
Fantastic book. Very powerful, informed& authentic
The book is long, but worth the time. Please don't be put off by the stilted reading style and unforgivable pronunciation errors e.g. Haig should be pronounced like hay - not high. Also it's the Sudetenland - not SudeNtenland!!!!!!!! The reader aside, the content is phenomenal.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-08-20
Moving, emotional and incredibly thorough
Intricate detail interwoven with hundreds of first hand accounts. An excellent and powerful description of the First World War.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jack fairbrother
- 23-08-20
An excellent book with a sub-par narrator.
This book doesn’t really warrant much comment: it’s a well known and informative work referenced by historians to this day. The narrator however makes me with they’d asked me. I’d have done it for free and would have pronounced the people and places correctly! The divide between simple words he mispronounces and relatively obscure foreign words or place names that he gets correct is perplexing. (It’s Haig, as in Hey-g! Not High-g!)
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Steven Robinson
- 17-07-24
Comprehensive narrative of a war that defined a century
To my shame I did not have a secure knowledge or understand of the Great War - this has now been rectified. Thank you. Humbling to hear what our great grandfathers sacrificed to ensure the freedom of Europe. Armistice now has even more power than importance.
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