A World Undone
The First World War is one of history’s greatest tragedies. In this remarkable and intimate account, author G. J. Meyer draws on exhaustive research to bring to life the story of how the Great War reduced Europe’s mightiest empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the foundations of the world we live in today. The First World War is one of history’s greatest tragedies. In this remarkable and intimate account, author G. J. Meyer draws on exhaustive research to bring to life the story of how the Great War reduced Europe’s mightiest empires to rubble, killed twenty million people, and cracked the foundations of the world we live in today.
Stats for nerds
7recommend
11mentions
11people
2013–2026years
64% recommend36% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I really appreciated G. J. Meyer’s “A World Undone”. My [lack of] understanding of the conflict before reading that did not prepare me for how farcical and devastating the war was.
https://www.alibris.com/A-World-Undone-The-Story-of-the-Grea...
It’s a long, sometimes tough read (because of the contents, not the writing, which is very well done), but worth it.
- You'll want "Inventing the Schlieffen Plan" and especially GJ Meyer's "The World Undone".
The second deals with prewar military strategy, showing that European militaries expected trench warfare and ineffective offensive, until the Ruso-Japanese war, which made them switch gears, believing a strong offensive and bayonets could overcome machine guns.
One interesting point is bayonet designs in the 1870s and 1880s were wide, meant to be used for digging, entrenching. But by the 1910s, they were suddenly long and thin to give soldiers "more reach" akin to spears!
- No Nordic Noir? e.g. Henning Mankell.
Lots of history, but only Barbara Tuchman on WW 1. I recommend G. J. Meyer "A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918" and "The World Remade: America in World War I".
- great timing, i was actually reading a wonderful book about wwi called “a world undone” by g j meyer, probably one of the best books about the war out there.
- Blueprint for Armageddon is probably Carlin's weakest series. It tries to cram too much into too little time, and ends up almost incoherent unless you're already very familiar with the details from elsewhere. You walk away with the idea that fighting that war must have been pretty horrible, but not much else.
I've read a lot of WWI books, and _A World Undone_ by G.J. Meyer was easily the best. Would recommend that to start with for anyone who is interested in a history of WWI as a whole. (There are arguably better options for those just interested in the story of the slide into war, since that really needs a lot of space). The audiobook version is great too.
- you can tell he rushed the ending. one of his source books was a fantastic read though - A World Undone by GJ Meyer https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553382403/ref=oh_aui_sear...
