The First World War was the overwhelming disaster from which everything else in the twentieth century stemmed. Fourteen million combatants died, a further twenty million were wounded, four empires were destroyed and even the victors' empires were fatally damaged. The sheer complexity and scale of the war have encouraged historians to write books on a similar scale. But now Norman Stone, one of Britain's greatest historians, has achieved the almost impossible task of writing a terse, brilliantly written, opinionated and witty short history of the conflict. In only 140 pages he distils a lifetime of teaching, arguing and thinking into what will be one of the most talked about history books of years to come.

诺曼•斯通（Norman Stone）

英国历史学家，牛津大学近代史教授，撒切尔政府顾问，首相演讲稿撰写人。现任土耳其比尔肯大学国际关系学院教授。曾获英国沃尔夫森历史写作个人奖(Wolfson History Prize), 方塔那欧洲历史奖（Fontana History of Europe Prize）。曾出版过《二战简史》（World War Two ：A Short History）、《大西洋的敌人》（The Atlantic and Its Enemies）、《东线1914~1917》（The Eastern Front 1914~1917）、《欧洲转型1878~1919》（Europe Transformed 1878-1919）、《血与火》（Blood & Fire）、《另一个俄罗斯：流亡体验》（The Other Russia: Experience of Exile）