First World War

The first day of the Somme has become synonymous with incompetent leadership during the First World War. The true picture of the battle – and the role played by General Sir Douglas Haig – is more complex.

A creature, part human, part machine – literature’s first true cyborg – was born of a desire to end the tragedy and waste of the Great War.

The trial and execution of Irish nationalist Roger Casement took place in the wake of the Easter Rising. It continues to resonate.

‘Shell shock’ is associated in particular with the First World War. Stuart M. Archer recounts the often brutal treatment meted out to sufferers of the condition and looks at how use of the term fell into disrepute. 

The First World War threw together people from all over the world. Anna Maguire considers images of these chance meetings and the light they shed on a global conflict.

On the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, Britain found itself in need of a national myth to bolster enlistment and morale. The victory of 1415 was soon put to service by the army of 1915.

Bulgaria suffered a swift and devastating defeat in the First World War, due, G.D. Sheppard argues, to its peasant leader-in-waiting’s shrewd use of propaganda.

The contribution of Indian troops to one of the first major battles on the Western Front. 

Armen T. Marsoobian explores the complex history of one of the 20th-century’s worst and most neglected crimes against humanity.

The First World War transformed women-only Somerville College. It became a hospital for convalescing soldiers, housed poets and writers and changed forever the fortunes of female students, writes Frank Prochaska.