An Illustrated History of The First World War (John Keegan, 2001)

As can be quickly told from looking at the list of books during the past year, I don't ever get tired of reading about World War I. (I also like Keegan's stuff, including this book.)

Keegan is a British war historian who is a good writer and knows lots about WWI. I took this book off the shelf for the pictures, but the overview of the entire war, pretty much all theaters, turns out to be highly useful.

But the photos make the book. I had never seen the vast majority of these. Going from the early days of optimism, through the trenches, through end of war, up to the cemeteries and memorials erected worldwide. The photos are stunning, and bring the written materials to life in a way that easily justifies the "worth a thousand words" cliche.

This war was simply amazing. It's been summed up far better than I can hope to do. The unbelievable trench system in the West; centuries-old empires breaking down; emerging airplane and tank technology; poison gas; 19th century infantry tactics against entrenched machine guns; millions of artillery shells altering landscapes; a devastated populace left behind in most countries, and an amazingly quick trip into WWII. Etc. Wow.

Take a close look at Otto Dix's triptych for one post-war German look at things. Or read this book.