The First World War By Michael Howard
‘So on 11 November at
11 a.m., the eleventh hour of the eleventh day
of the eleventh month,
the guns on the Western Front at last fell
silent, leaving both
sides to mourn their dead.’
Being new to this subject, I would be at fault if I were to
review this work without having some kind of benchmark. This benchmark would
have to be The First World War mini-series by Jonathan Lewis. It is a 500
minutes-ten episode documentary on the First world war. I realize that this
kind of comparison – of a film and a book may seem absurd, but I would try to
treat the documentary a benchmark only in terms of its content , not form.
I believe that Michael
Howard has been quite successful in giving a brief introduction to first world
war. While going through the 500 minute documentary it seemed that I had at
least some idea of what I was watching because I had already read Howard’s
book.
I cannot say that Howard’s work is completely objective,
considering that his comments on the events do seem to have certain
connotations attached to them which seemed more like Howard’s own beliefs and
interpretations rather than the world’s.
However, I was more than okay with this bias since it helped me remember
the events and understand their effects on the future events. For a reader who
is just starting to explore a new subject area, this kind of bias may help him
understand the work critically and make sure that he does not lose interest in
it. More importantly it can help him get some idea of whether the event was ‘good’
or ‘bad’- this duality, real or not, occupies human mind and seems to appeal to
it. I find Howard’s writing style easy to follow and not pedantic. This keeps
this work open to a general reader.
While I am in no position to compare this work with some
other introductory works on first world war, I can say, with some confidence, that
this will help the reader understand the context of first world war- why it was
fought, what did it mean and what contribution has it had in the current world
view.
This work is recommended! If coupled with the documentary, it is sure to give a good idea of the events of first world war to the reader.
