Hart Peter. The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War

Oxford: University Press, 2013.A truly thorough account of the Great War. The development of new technologies and the way tactics changed to take advantage of, or overcome them, as the war progressed is thoroughly covered. The options and actions of the generals from all the combatant nations (and in many cases their stunning disregard of their own high command) is well explained. The descriptions of battles are the clearest one could have ever read; however the book is woefully short of maps. There is one map for each of the main theatres of war. Trying to follow the intricacies of the text of, say, the Battle of the Marne on a single map of the entire Western Front is a frustrating business. The map of the naval actions in the North Sea shows little except where they took place.
The major advantage of the book is its lengthy quotes of the letters, reports and words of the individuals involved. It is very much of the "revised" view of the Western Front, ie that it did not seem pointless at the time, and that the British and French learned the lessons and developed their weapons and tactics to the point where they overwhelmed the central powers in 1918.