| Book Review | Journal of World History, 16.1

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| Book Review | Journal of World History, 16.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Great War: An Imperial History. By JOHN H. MORROW JR. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. 352 + xvi pp. $43.95.

The genesis of The Great War: An Imperial History lies in the author's efforts to impart a sense of the profound impact the First World War has exerted on the lives of his American students, who, he laments, know little of the conflict. Generally speaking, the result is eminently suited for undergraduate teaching, a survey that attempts to "tie it all together"—from roots to aftermath—by drawing on the latest insights into not just the war's military and diplomatic but also its economic, social, and cultural elements. In a historiography the author decries for its Eurocentrism, Morrow's persistence in exploring the colonial aspects of the war—and the impact of the predatory imperialism of the belle époque as a critical cause—constitutes one of the book's strengths. He is also to be admired for rejecting the still pervasive popular—and simplistic—view that the war was a cruel, tragic absurdity. "The European powers went to war to determine who would control Europe and the world," he writes. "The stakes proved enormous, and the statesmen and generals ... were no innocents" (p. 36).

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