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The Journal of Military History 68.2 (2004) 621-622



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The Great War: An Imperial History. By John H. Morrow, Jr. New York: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-20439-9. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xiii, 352. $27.50.

This work seeks to throw a global perspective on a war that the author contends many people often construe narrowly as almost exclusively European. Besides examining the war outside of Europe in detail, Morrow seeks to mesh the military dimension with political, social, economic, and cultural aspects. The wartime chapters follow the conflict chronologically, on an annual basis, discussing all fronts and theaters, as well as the domestic developments within the major combatant powers. As Morrow pays particular attention to the roles of class, gender, and race in the war, his work will not disappoint readers who have a sociological bent. Morrow's all-encompassing approach was inspired by his discontent with historians who treat the war from a topical viewpoint that "does violence to the interrelated nature of disparate events as they occurred chronologically during the war" (p. xi). He is also unhappy with historians who "accept only operational history as relevant," or who view events from the narrow perspective of their specialties. Such approaches, he maintains, "actually [impede] a more complete understanding of developments that inextricably intertwine all facets of history" (p. xi).

Morrow's work has the vices of its virtues. He does an excellent job of addressing almost every conceivable aspect of the war, and I especially enjoyed his attention to lesser known theaters, such as the Caucasus and the naval side of the conflict in the Adriatic. He also excels in his coverage of the war in Africa and Asia, and its impact on the native populations. On the other hand, his attempt to include strategy, tactics, technology, gender-roles, racism, and much else in every chapter, left this reviewer with a sense of "information overload." Just when I was getting interested in tactical developments, for example, he would jump to some social or racial issue. While [End Page 621] Morrow has an excellent command of the latest interpretations (his chapter on the origins of the war reads like a bibliographical essay), and he possesses a good writing style, I found it somewhat tiring to slog through so many forays in various directions in each chapter, from, so to speak, "bullets to bloomers." Also, and at the risk of putting myself in the camp of historians that Morrow condemns for "partitioning history," I think he might have done better to have divided his material into separate chapters according to theme. My final criticism is that his work seems influenced by today's cult of "political correctness" and is too judgmental (and self-righteous) concerning a past generation's shortcomings. Still, I can recommend Morrow's work as full of information and well worth examining.



Larry H. Addington
Emeritus, The Citadel
Charleston, South Carolina


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