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sophiadh 's review for:
A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918
by G.J. Meyer
This book is part of the pile I’m wading through to research a new story idea. I know I want to set it in England sometime between the end of the first world war and just after the second, but I don’t know exactly when. So, I figured I’d start with the first world war and work my way forward. This book is an excellent overview of the whole thing. The war is such a massive topic that it is almost impossible to cover everything, but this succeeds for the most part. Meyer covers everything in chronological order, so you get a feel for what was happening everywhere at any given time. He also includes small sections of historical background between each chapter the provides valuable insight into things like the history of the Balkans, the Junckers, and the Hohenzollerns. The only area that I thought was a little lacking were details on the war in Italy, but that is a minor quibble. It’s quite long, and really gives you the sense of the kind of meatgrinder the war was. I highly recommend it for anyone new to the topic.