When researching a new topic it is often necessary to get an overview, explanations of unfamiliar terms, brief factual information, and test your own assumptions about the topic. The print and online resources listed below include encyclopedias, handbooks, and bibliographies for First World War studies.
Key Resources
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International Encyclopedia of the First World War
Since 2011 the international joint research project "1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War" has been developing an English-language virtual reference work on the First World War. Released in October 2014, the online encyclopedia is the result of an international collaborative project to make available a multi-perspective, public-access knowledge base on the First World War. "1914-1918-online" represents a major undertaking under the Open Access paradigm by promoting free and unlimited dissemination of the content to individual users, search engines, and reference services.
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Researching World War I: a handbook
[HIL-STACKS D522.4 .R47 2003]
This book discusses the literature on all aspects of the war. Dennis Showalter's opening chapter covers the controversial issue of the war's origins - a complex subject that has been much debated by historians. Ensuing chapters consider the literature on each of the participating countries. The broader subjects of the war at sea and the war in the air are also covered. Daniel Beaver's final chapter discusses the mobilization of industry and the new military technology. This book is an excellent starting point for anyone seeking guidance to the immense, and often daunting, body of World War I literature.
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The Cambridge history of the First World War
[HIL-REF D521 .C35 2014 (v.1-3)]
Volume I. Global war -- Part I.A narrative history -- 1. Origins / Volker R. Berghahn -- 2. 1914: outbreak / Jean-Jacques Becker and Gerd Krumeich -- 3. 1915: stalemate / Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau -- 4. 1916: impasse / Robin Prior -- 5. 1917: global war / Michael S. Neiberg -- 6. 1918: endgame / Christoph Mick -- 7. 1919: aftermath / Bruno Cabanes -- Part II. Theatres of war -- 8. The western front / Robin Prior -- 9. The eastern front / Holger Afflerbach -- 10. The Italian front / Nicola Labanca -- 11. The Ottoman front / Robin Prior -- 12. The war at sea / Paul Kennedy -- 13. The air war / John H. Morrow, Jr. -- 14. Strategic command / Gary Sheffield and Stephen Badsey -- Part III. World war -- 15. The imperial framework / John H. Morrow, Jr. -- 16. Africa / Bill Nasson -- 17. The Ottoman Empire / Mustafa Aksakal -- 18. Asia / Guoqi Xu -- 19. North America / Jennifer D. Keene -- 20. Latin America / Olivier Compagnon -- Part IV. Rules of engagement, laws of war and war crimes -- 21. Atrocities and war crimes / John Horne -- 22. Genocide / Hans-Lukas Kieser and Donald Bloxham -- 23. The laws of war / Annie Deperchin -- 24. Visual essay: global war / Jay Winter.
Volume II. The state -- Part I. Political power -- 1. Heads of state and government / Jean-Jacques Becker -- 2. Parliaments / Dittmar Dahlmann -- 3. Diplomats / David Stevenson -- 4. Civil-military relations / Stig Förster -- 5. Revolution / Richard Bessel -- Part II. Armed forces -- 6. Combat and tactics / Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau -- 7. Morale / Alexander Watson -- 8. Mutiny / Leonard V. Smith -- 9. Logistics / Ian Brown -- 10. Technology and armaments / Frédéric Guelton -- 11. Prisoners of war / Heather Jones -- Part III. The sinews of war -- 12. War economies / Barry Supple -- 13. Workers / Antoine Prost -- 14. Cities / Stefan Goebel -- 15. Agrarian society / Benjamin Ziemann -- 16. Finance / Hans-Peter Ullmann -- 17. Scientists / Roy MacLeod -- 18. Blockade and economic warfare / Alan Kramer -- Part IV. The search for peace -- 19. Diplomacy / Georges Henri-Soutou -- 20. Neutrality / Samuël Kruizinga -- 21. Pacificism / Martin Ceadel -- 22. Drafting the peace / Helmut Konrad -- 23. The continuum of violence / Robert Gerwarth -- 24. Visual essay: war and the state / Arndt Weinrich.
Volume III. Civil society -- Part I. Private life -- 1. The couple / Martha Hanna -- 2. Children / Manon Pignot -- 3. Families / Jay Winter -- Part II. Gender -- 4. War work / Laura Lee Downs -- 5. Men and women at home / Susan R. Grayzel -- 6. At the front / Margaret R. Higonnet -- 7. Gender roles in killing zones / Joanna Bourke -- Part III. Populations at risk -- 8. Refugees and exiles / Peter Gatrell and Philippe Nivet -- 9. Minorities / Panikos Panayi -- 10. Populations under occupation / Sophie de Schaepdrijver -- 11. Captive civilians / Annette Becker -- Part IV. Bodies in pain -- 12. Military medicine / Leo van Bergen -- 13. Shell shock / Jay Winter -- 14. The Spanish flu / Anne Rasmussen -- 15. Mourning practices / Joy Damousi -- Part V. The social history of cultural life -- 16. Mobilising minds / Anne Rasmussen -- 17. Beliefs and religion / Adrian Gregory -- 18. Soldier-writers and poets / Nicolas Beaupré -- 19. Cinema / Laurent Véray -- 20. Arts / Annette Becker -- 21. War memorials / Bruce Scates and Rebecca Wheatley -- Part VI. A reckoning: costs and outcomes -- 22. The dead / Antoine Prost -- 23. The living / John Horne -- 24. The Great War at its centenary / John Horne -- 25. Visual essay: civil society / Annette Becker.
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The Cambridge history of the First World War. Volume 1, Global war
This first volume of The Cambridge History of the First World War provides a comprehensive account of the war's military history. An international team of leading historians chart how a war made possible by globalization and imperial expansion unfolded into catastrophe, growing year by year in scale and destructive power far beyond what anyone had anticipated in 1914. Adopting a global perspective, the volume analyses the spatial impact of the war and the subsequent ripple effects that occurred both regionally and across the world. It explores how imperial powers devoted vast reserves of manpower and material to their war efforts, and how, by doing so, they changed the political landscape of the world order. It also charts the moral, political and legal implications of the changing character of war and, in particular, the collapse of the distinction between civilian and military targets.
Purchased multi-user unlimited access -
The Cambridge history of the First World War. Volume 2, The state
Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of the First World War offers a history of the war from a predominantly political angle and concerns itself with the story of the state. It explores the multifaceted history of state power and highlights the ways in which different political systems responded to, and were deformed by, the near-unbearable pressures of war. Every state involved faced issues of military-civilian relations, parliamentary reviews of military policy, and the growth of war economies; and yet their particular form and significance varied in every national case. Written by a global team of historical experts, this volume sets new standards in the political history of the waging of war in an authoritative new narrative which addresses problems of logistics, morale, innovation in tactics and weapons systems, the use and abuse of science; all of which were ubiquitous during the conflict.
Purchased multi-user unlimited access -
The Cambridge History of the First World War. Volume 3, Civil Society
Volume 3 of The Cambridge History of the First World War explores the social and cultural history of the war and considers the role of civil society throughout the conflict; that is to say those institutions and practices outside the state through which the war effort was waged. Drawing on twenty-five years of historical scholarship, it sheds new light on culturally significant issues such as how families and medical authorities adapted to the challenges of war and the shift that occurred in gender roles and behaviour that would subsequently reshape society. Adopting a transnational approach, this volume surveys the war's treatment of populations at risk, including refugees, minorities and internees, to show the full extent of the disaster of war and, with it, the stubborn survival of irrational kindness and the generosity of spirit that persisted amidst the bitterness at the heart of warfare, with all its contradictions and enduring legacies. This volume concludes with a reckoning of the costs and consequences of The Great War.
Purchased multi-user unlimited access -
A Companion to World War I
This title is part of the Wiley/Blackwell Reference Online e-book collection available through the Wiley Online Library.
Permitted Use | Purchased multi-user unlimited access -
World War I : encyclopedia
[HIL-REF D510 .E53 2005 (v.1-5)]
A political, social, and military history.
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World War I in Africa: The Forgotten Conflict Among the European Powers
[HIL-STACKS D575 .S36 2013 ]
The vast military campaigns in Africa during World War I were among the most ambitious of the Great War. Many histories, however, have regarded these campaigns as side-shows to the war on the Western Front. World War One in Africa looks afresh at the impact of the strategy of the German and Allied campaigns, and at the great rivalry between General Jan Christian Smuts, who took on the German forces in East Africa, and General Lettow-Vorbeck, celebrated as the only German general to occupy British territory and whose troops finished the war undefeated. Using primary material from British and South African archives, this book is a detailed study of the giants of the campaign, and the battles which would shape the outcome of the Great War as well as the future of the African continent and the British Empire
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The First World War in Africa
To Arms is Hew Strachan's most complete and definitive study of the opening of the First World War. Now, key sections from this magisterial work are published as individual paperbacks, each complete in itself, and with a new introduction by the author. The First World War was not just fought in the trenches of the western front. It embraced all of Africa. Many of those who fought this white man's war were black. The dangers they confronted went beyond those of the battlefield. They fell prey to malaria and dysentery, and they were attacked by lions and crocodiles.
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The Canadian Encyclopedia. First World War Collection
The First World War of 1914–1918 was the bloodiest conflict in Canadian history, taking the lives of more than 60,000 Canadians. This collection brings together a number of our resources on the First World War.
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World War I Memories: An Annotated Bibliography of Personal Accounts Published in English Since 1919
[HIL-REF D640 .A2 L54 2004]
World War I Memories: An Annotated Bibliography of Personal Accounts Published in English Since 1919 is a comprehensive reference to more than 1,400 memoirs, diaries, and letters by soldiers and civilians from all belligerent nations during World War I. Organized by country, this book includes incisive commentary on each entry's value to historians, enthusiasts, and collectors and incorporates frequently overlooked, as well as well-known, titles. The introduction serves as a guide to the best World War I literature and title and subject indexes allow searching by unit, front, personal perspective, and battle
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Biographical dictionary of World War I
[HIL-REF D507 .H47 1982 ]
Maps -- Acknowledgments -- A note on names, places, and dates -- Historical introduction. Origins - The Western front - The war in the East - The war at sea - The home front - The peace -- Notes -- The dictionary -- Appendixes. Chronology of events - Principal occupations: prewar, wartime, postwar -- Bibliography -- Index
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Dictionary of Canadian military history
[HIL-REF FC226 .B47 1992]
A single-volume reference work containing information on all aspects of the Canadian military.
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Oxford companion to military history, The
[HIL-REF D25 .A2 O94 2001]
"This Oxford companion does much to untangle the long and complicated history of military events in Europe and North America since the 18th century. The thoughtful entries are clear, concise, and readable, with a number of extended entries on such subjects as artillery, infantry, and the science and technology of war."--"Outstanding Reference Sources," American Libraries, May 2002. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
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Reader's guide to military history
[HIL-REF D25 .R34 2001]
This book contains some 600 entries on a range of topics from ancient Chinese warfare to late 20th-century intervention operations. Designed for a wide variety of users, it encompasses general reviews of aspects of military organization and science, as well as specific wars and conflicts. The book examines naval and air warfare, as well as significant individuals, including commanders, theorists, and war leaders. Each entry includes a listing of additional publications on the topic, accompanied by an article discussing these publications with reference to their particular emphases, strengths, and limitations. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
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Warfare and armed conflicts : a statistical encyclopedia of casualty and other figures, 1494-2007
[HIL-REF D214 .C54 2008]
This volume is an attempt to account for military and noncombatant casualties in every war (and other forms of mass human violence) for which there exist statistics over the course of the last five centuries. Rather than engage in a dry recital of statistics however, the author has embedded the numbers within essays that briefly explore the historical contexts of the conflicts, how people died and at the end of which weapons, and the impacts of the various conflicts. Numerous other statistics are embedded within these essays as well, such as the number of personnel engaged in battles and campaigns, numbers of missing in action, and numbers of weapons and vehicles deployed.
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Propaganda and mass persuasion : a historical encyclopedia, 1500 to the present
[HIL-REF HM1231 .C85 2003]
A truly international, authoritative A-Z guide to five centuries of propaganda, in both wartime and peacetime, which covers key moments, techniques, concepts, and some of the most influential propagandists in history.
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Women and war : a historical encyclopedia from antiquity to the present
[HIL-REF U24 .W69 2006]
Cook (history, Loyola U., New Orleans) compiles a two-volume encyclopedia for a general audience that considers women's experiences with war--in battle, medical, manufacturing, and administrative roles, and as victims. The entries cover people and events from antiquity to the present, all aspects of war, and places in all parts of the world, from Afghanistan to Yugoslavia. Some entries are topical (e.g. on rape); others are biographical profiles of journalists, government figures, military leaders, Nobel Peace Prize winners, peace activists, photographers, spies, terrorists, writers, and even a few entertainers.
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Encyclopedia of military technology and innovation
[HIL-REF U24 .B85 2004]
Bull (curator of military history and archeology at the Museum of Lancashire) describes the invention and evolution of significant advances in military technology from the knobkerrie through nuclear and biological warfare. After a refreshingly honest preface about the role of weaponry in history, Bull lists nearly 600 entries alphabetically, with references to technologies from aircraft and armor through vehicles and warships. He describes the inventors, designers, specifications, and histories of each item, and also includes additional readings for most along with a comprehensive bibliography. Annotation #169;2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
To find additional reference materials, check UNB WorldCat (the library catalogue) or our Reference Materials database.
