First World War

David Rooney describes the extraordinary exploits of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the German soldier who kept the Allies tied down in Africa throughout the Great War.

Mark Mazower looks back to the much maligned Versailles Treaty and finds we still live in the continent it created.

October 1st, 1918

Graham Darby provides a timely reconsideration of why the conflict went on for so long and why the Central Powers lost.

Christopher Ray queries the accepted pictures of a reluctant victim of forces beyond her control.  

Derek Aldcroft argues that the statesmen of 1919 failed to act in the interests of Europe as a whole.

Robert Pearce distributes a survival kit for the most hazardous causation question of all.

Omer Bartov asks how the armies of lords and kings became the forces of peoples and nations.

Mark Meigs uncovers a fascinating initiative enacted in France at the end of the First World War designed to turn American soldiers into students empowered with all the virtues of the Progressive era.

A.D. Harvey reflects on why the Great War captured the literary imagination.