Adrian Gregory is Lecturer in Modern History at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. His previous publications include The Silence of Memory: Armistice Day 1919–1946 (1994) and, as editor, A War to Unite Us All: Ireland and the Great War (2002).

'Adrian Gregory has provided the best brief account we have of the history of the Great War. Using an astonishing array of sources uncovering wartime life at the front and at home, Gregory tells the story of the war in a manner which is engaging, combative, and authoritative. Here is an original, tough-minded and thoughtful book, written by an historian unafraid of exploding the myths which still surround the 1914–18 conflict.' Jay Winter, Yale University

• Introduction: the war that did not end all wars; 1. Going to war; 2. Defining the enemy: atrocities and propaganda; 3. From spectatorship to participation; volunteering to compulsion; 4. Economies of sacrifice; 5. Redemption through war: religion and the languages of sacrifice; 6. The conditional sacrifices of labour; 7. The Last War: 1917-?; Conclusion.

Adrian Gregory is Lecturer in Modern History at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. His previous publications include The Silence of Memory: Armistice Day 1919–1946 (1994) and, as editor, A War to Unite Us All: Ireland and the Great War (2002).

'Adrian Gregory has provided the best brief account we have of the history of the Great War. Using an astonishing array of sources uncovering wartime life at the front and at home, Gregory tells the story of the war in a manner which is engaging, combative, and authoritative. Here is an original, tough-minded and thoughtful book, written by an historian unafraid of exploding the myths which still surround the 1914–18 conflict.' Jay Winter, Yale University

• Introduction: the war that did not end all wars; 1. Going to war; 2. Defining the enemy: atrocities and propaganda; 3. From spectatorship to participation; volunteering to compulsion; 4. Economies of sacrifice; 5. Redemption through war: religion and the languages of sacrifice; 6. The conditional sacrifices of labour; 7. The Last War: 1917-?; Conclusion.