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  • Published: 10 July 2014
  • ISBN: 9780670919635
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $32.00
Categories:

Great Britain's Great War




The most vivid and complete history of Britain's WW1 on its 100th anniversary accompanied by a major BBC TV series

Life for the British during the First World War was not at all what you think...

Using a wealth of first-hand source material and his characteristic flair for story-telling, Jeremy Paxman brings to life the day-to-day experience of the British over the entire course of the war, from politicians, newspapermen, campaigners and Generals, to Tommies, factory-workers, nurses, wives and children, explaining why we fought it so enthusiastically, how we endured it so doggedly and how it transformed everything, such as women's suffrage, new surgery techniques, lower-class 'officer gentlemen', a powerful press, sexually transmitted diseases and British Summer Time.

  • Published: 10 July 2014
  • ISBN: 9780670919635
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $32.00
Categories:

About the author

Jeremy Paxman

Jeremy Paxman is the author of the bestselling book THE ENGLISH. He is a regular radio and TV presenter, most notably for Newsnight. Robert Harris and Jeremy Paxman initially worked together on this book when they were both reporters for Panorama.

Also by Jeremy Paxman

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Praise for Great Britain's Great War

He writes so well and sympathetically, and chooses his detail so deftly, that if there is one new history of the war that you might actually enjoy from the very large centennial selection this is very likely it

The Times

The writing is lively and the detail often surprising and memorable

Guardian

Incisive, colourful. Paxman delves into every aspect of British life to capture the mood and morale of the nation

Daily Express ****

Clever, laconic and racy. A judicious mix between individual stories and the 'bigger picture' . . . engages the mind and emotions

Telegraph

A procession of fascinating details . . . he narrates with brio . . . conveys the texture of the times . . . write[s] with clarity and sympathy

Spectator

Paxman is particularly good . . . in showing how much a modern perspective distorts our understanding . . . summarises well how class barriers were shattered . . . refreshingly combative in arguing that the war was not futile

Prospect

Mixing pragmatism with sardonic observation . . . one is left with a better understanding of how the Great Britain that began the war became more like ordinary Britain, shorn of global power and prestige, by its end

Sunday Times

Compelling . . . a moving, incisive and wide-ranging study of why a generation felt going to war was not only unavoidable but necessary

Daily Mail