Document Type
Review
Publication Date
10-30-2019
Department 1
Interdisciplinary Studies
Abstract
Perhaps the gravest difficulty with any single volume book on the Great War is taming the war's complexities while still maintaining a degree of nuance and insight that goes beyond the temptation for simplification. Indeed, the war's scale itself makes this task even more unmanageable. How can an author possibly offer a nuanced treatment that takes into consideration a war fought on three continents, not to mention, the political and social realities on the war's many home fronts and the changing dynamics of differing and complex societies under strain? To be comprehensive is an impossible task especially given the wealth of history written about the war's many subfields and distinct niche subjects. No historian can truly have mastery of the Great War's deep and broad literatures and no single volume can possibly be "comprehensive." [excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
ISBN/ISSN
1527-8050
Version
Version of Record
Recommended Citation
Isherwood, Ian. Review of Pandora's Box: A History of the First World War, by Jӧrn Leonhard. Journal of World History 30, no. 4 (2019): 621-624.
Required Publisher's Statement
This article was originally made available through Project MUSE.