The Routledge Atlas of the First World War Book

I love maps and this was an excellent tool to get a visual about the events of WWI. I had just finished The Guns of August by Barbara Touchman and this helped to solidify my introductary grasp at understanding this war. It is a quick read at 164 pages of useful information highlighting major battles, statistics, country sacrifice, war material usage, battle movements, countries involved at what stage, and sequence of events. These maps, statistics, and sequenced events gave clarity. I think many people in this world are visual learners so presenting the material in this fashion may help them learn and understand better than reading a long novel.

The downside of this book is that it is virtually impossible to made the reader feel the terribleness of war through statistics. Novels make people realize the horrors of war much better than graphs or charts. The purpose of the book is not to make one feel the war, but understand the sequence and grandness of it all and to that goal this book effectively did that for me.