The Great War: An Imperial History - Brief Article - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Feb, 2004

The Great War: An Imperial History. John H. Morrow, Jnr. Routledge. [pounds sterling]25.00. xvi 352 pages. ISBN 0-415-20439-9. How to write about the Great War when so much has been written by so many is a problem facing military historians. Mr. Morrow has solved the dilemma by looking at the war from 'a global perspective' as opposed to an European one.

The book is written for an American audience by an American teacher and assumes certain rather simplistic views of European 'imperialism'. These in turn lead to equally simplistic conclusions: 'Europeans glorified war and violence and feared other "lesser races" as a result of imperial conquest. These impulses undid Europe as its powers embarked upon war for control of the continent and the world in 1914'. This is not an assertion any serious student of the First World War would take seriously. Not surprisingly, Mr Morrow depends much on the writings of Eric Hobsbawm, now as much discredited for his sympathy with Communism as for the accuracy of his writing.