Pandora's Box

Winner of the Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr., Prize"A major contribution...the best large-scale synthesis in any language of what we currently know and understand about this multidimensional, cataclysmic conflict."-Richard J. Evans, Times Literary Supplement"[An] epic and magnificent work-unquestionably, for me, the best single-volume history of the war I have ever read...It is the most formidable attempt to make the war to end all wars comprehensible as a whole."-Simon Heffer, The Spectator"Extremely readable, lucidly structured, focused, and dynamic, Pandora's Box shows that the world that emerges from the First World War is utterly transformed by the experience. Leonhard's analysis is enlivened by a sharp eye for concrete situations and an ear for the voices that best convey the meaning of change for the people and societies undergoing it."-Christopher Clark, author of The SleepwalkersIn this monumental history of the First World War, Germany's leading historian of the war explains its origins, course, and consequences. Joern Leonhard treats the clash of arms with a sure feel for grand strategy, and brilliantly captures the everyday tactics of dynamic movement and slow attrition, the race for ever more destructive technologies, and the grim experiences of front-line soldiers. But the war was much more than a military conflict and he also gives us the perspectives of leaders, intellectuals, artists, and ordinary men and women on different home fronts as they grappled with the urgency of the moment and the rise of unprecedented political and social pressures. With an unrivaled combination of depth and global reach, Pandora's Box reveals how profoundly the war shaped the world to come.