The Great War: A Photographic Narrative (Imperial War Museums)

The Imperial War Museums house what is probably the world's largest collection of photographs of World War I. This handsome book, worthy of any library or coffee table, contains a superb collection of almost four hundred of those photographs.The majority of the photographs are from the Western Front. Most of those depict British and Empire forces, but French and German forces are also well represented. In addition, there are a few photographs from the Eastern Front, quite a few from the war on the seas, a handful from more far-flung regions (the Middle East and Africa), and a number from the home fronts (mostly Britain). We tend to think of the Western Front as trenches and mud, which indeed many of the photographs depict. Flipping through the pages reminded me of other aspects of the Western Front, such as the use of gas as a weapon, the heavy reliance on horses and mules for transport and the occasional use of messenger dogs and carrier pigeons for communication, and the deployment of Empire soldiers (not only Canadians and Australians, but also Indians, Africans, and West Indians).Many of the photographs are memorable. For me, three of them stand out especially: the decomposed body of a German soldier, killed at the entrance to his dugout, in the Somme, France; stretcher-bearers of the Field Ambulance Corps carrying a wounded man through thigh-high mud in the Ypres Salient, Belgium; and British soldiers, each with his hands on the shoulders of the man in front and some with white bandages over his eyes, queued up waiting for treatment for mustard gas (a tableau that suggests this photograph was the model or inspiration for John Singer Sargent's painting "Gassed").There is minimal text, but what there is is intelligently handled. The book includes useful chronological tables for each of the five calendar years. The captions enhance the photographs rather than interfere with their presentation. THE GREAT WAR: A PHOTOGRAPHIC NARRATIVE is (save for a conspicuous typographic error on page 498) an exemplary commemoration of the War's centennial.

I do freelance photographic and video work. I also have a passion for history. From that perspective, I found this a truly great book which I have few complaints about. There are images here I felt should not have been reproduced simply because they lacked interest or really did nothing to capture the war itself. The text accompanying the photography in the beginning of each chapter, used to catalogue events is unnecessary. However, each of the photographic explanations are highly useful for reference. Another reviewer here complained about blank or half used pages. I did indeed find this puzzling and rather pointless. My only other issue, is the lack of a higher paper quality. It could be argued that using a higher grade would have made the book more expensive. So what? If you are going to produce a book of this scope and importance, why not go the extra mile?

I bought this for my brother-in-law for his birthday. This man knows more about WWI than anyone I know and I was a history teacher, specializing in World Cultures. I remember cruising on the Dardanelles and watching him hold a group of people enthralled with his knowlege of the siege of Gallipoli. I was so interested I missed the site of Schliemann' s cities of Troy! Published by the Imperial War Museum, it is an amazing pictorial chronicle of that tragic time. It has been issued as a commerative study for the 100th anniversary of the Great War. He enjoyed this book and so did I. I hope you will too.

The photos in this book are crisp and exemplify the lives of the military men and women of WW1. Having been to Verdun,as well as Up on the Somme, I can appreciate the nature of the beast. A bit on the expensive side, but well worth the money. One can still see the damage that is depicted in this book, however, the books shows the devastation at the time.

Huge number of high-quality WW1 photographs; the explanatory text leaves a little to be desired. If you buy this book, it's for the photos, not for the superficial "history"

Bought this for myself and then bought it as a gift. A large, heavy book with high-quality photos.

Never before pictures placed in sequence give a vivid portrait of the war, what led to it and the toll it took. It's a must have for anyone interested in WWI or in the ravages of war at any time.

The photos in this book are so big & clear, you're able to see details not normally seen because the pics are too small. Well worth getting if WW1 interests you, I've read it through 3x in a weekend!

Very expensive but a wonderful visual record of the 1st World War. Big and heavy book too.

The book has a first-rate graphics and is interesting to read the amount of information on the development of military photography that accompany each chapter of the book. In my opinion, however, we must point out that the 60% of photographs have been published in other books on the first world war over the past 20 years.Then I discovered too late that this is the US Edition. If I bought the same book in English Edition would have savedalmost £ 30!

Superb, just superb.