THE FOLIO SOCIETY

The War That Shaped the 20th Century
Queues outside recruiting stations, flooded trenches and dugouts, the waste of no-man's land and poppies blowing in Flanders fields: images of the First World War remain deeply impressed on the modern consciousness.

Churchill's The World Crisis is one of the greatest accounts of that terrible conflict ever written. Still consulted by historians today, it is regarded as essential reading for those wishing to learn more about the First World War. Its breadth of coverage and grasp of facts is impressive, but it is Churchill's vivid writing which allows readers to truly understand the war, from the anguish of the casualty lists to the brinkmanship of international negotiations over the Peace Treaty.

Beyond its value as history, this is also an absorbing memoir of the political and military development of the man who would find himself at the absolute centre of the 20th century's second, and even greater, conflagration.

The First Complete and Unabridged Edition For Half a Century
This edition will be welcomed by the many readers eager to see this classic work in print again. Published in five volumes, the set is introduced by Sir Martin Gilbert, a leading historian and Churchill's official biographer. The five volumes are handsomely bound in three-quarters cloth with each front cover printed with a contemporary photograph.

Specially Redrawn Maps and Over 150 Selected Photographs
Over 120 of the original battle plans and maps commissioned by Churchill are placed side by side with the text, elucidating his descriptions of campaigns. Several have been specially redrawn for this edition. The historian Terry Charman, has selected over 150 contemporary photographs from the archives at the Imperial War Museum, showing us the key personalities, so many of whom Churchill knew intimately. Charman's selection includes rarely reproduced images of naval warfare, Zeppelins and German and Turkish soldiers, alongside haunting pictures of trench warfare.

An Eyewitness Account from the Heart of the War
Churchill understood the heart-breaking reality of deadlock on the Western Front and he was one of the architects of the Dardenelles attack, which attempted to break the stalemate. Its failure led to his fall from office and the resulting Gallipoli campaign left over 250,000 Anzacs and British casualties. Churchill's minute account of the disaster in Volume 2 is both a robust defence of his own role and a bitter reflection on a waste of life and opportunity.

A soldier who never forgot his humanity
After his forced resignation, Churchill served in the army in Flanders and his personal sympathy and his respect for the soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Somme is clear. The horror of constant shelling in muddy, flooded trenches, the inadequacy of equipment and the frightful loss of life were realities he understood and deplored. The economist, John Maynard Keynes, once called parts of The World Crisis, 'a tractate against war'.

An indefatigable member of government
In 1917 Churchill returned to govern-ment and energetically pursued the development of tanks, which had been considered initially so absurd they were referred to as 'Winston's follies'. Intimately acquainted with the negotiations and tensions of the Peace Treaty, Churchill knew more about the after-effects of the war, from the foundation of the Irish Free State to the civil war in Russia, than any other single individual.

An exceptionally candid historian
In writing The World Crisis, Churchill included his source material wherever he could. He reproduces memos, letters, journals and telegrams both from his own and others' experience. Crucially, he also incorporated German, Turkish and French accounts to provide a complete and balanced picture.

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