The Great War (Imperial War Museums)
*Starred Review* WWI was “great” only in the depth of its destruction and the extent of its crippling effect. The early idea that it was the war to end all wars died quickly when it became obvious, as the 1920s turned into the 1930s, that another big blowout was gathering momentum and would, like the previous one, come to involve regions beyond Europe. From the archives of the Imperial War Museums in Britain, illustrator Holborn and museum curator Roberts have culled 380 black-and-white photographs and here present them in a visual chronicle of WWI, to mark the 2014 centenary of the war’s outbreak. This large-size volume, as heavy in actual weight as it is in importance, brings graphic, intimate images of the war, which was indeed worldwide and horrific, face-to-face with viewers for whom WWI is ancient history. The war was fought on land and on the sea, in trenches and in the air, and the art of photography had advanced in sophistication and become universal enough in usage that all aspects of the war were captured for perpetuity, from enthusiastic troop mobilizations in 1914 to equally enthusiastic armistice celebrations in 1918. Chapter arrangement is by year, with introductions to each chapter, though brief, setting the military and political contexts of the photos to come. A major addition to world-history collections. --Brad Hooper