David Fromkin_3 Titles (Hist; War; Non-Fict) RETAIL-EPUB

The Great War not only destroyed the lives of over twenty million soldiers and civilians, it also ushered in a century of huge political and social upheaval, led directly to the Second World War and altered for ever the mechanisms of governments. And yet its causes, both long term and immediate, have continued to be shrouded in mystery.

In Europe's Last Summer, David Fromkin reveals a new pattern in the happenings of that fateful July and August, which leads in unexpected directions. Rather than one war, starting with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, he sees two conflicts, related but not inseparably linked, whose management drew Europe and the world into what The Economist described as early as 1914 as 'perhaps the greatest tragedy in human history'.



Within a few years of each other in the 1880s five Americans were born who would play large parts in leading the way toward a new balance of global power - away from Europe in favour of the United States - over the course of the first and second world wars and beyond. These men had been born into a political world dominated by Europe. When their careers were complete no nation could match American influence politically, economically and militarily. This is a major work of popular history by the acclaimed author of A Peace to End All Peace. David Fromkin brings a sparkling fluency and storytelling instinct to the wonderfully large narrative and the characters who form its story - Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Marshall and MacArthur.



Published with a new afterword from the author--the classic, bestselling account of how the modern Middle East was created

The Middle East has long been a region of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and ambitions. All of these conflicts--including the hostilities between Arabs and Israelis, and the violent challenges posed by Iraq's competing sects--are rooted in the region's political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed by the Allies after the First World War.

In A Peace to End All Peace, David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies drew lines on an empty map that remade the geography and politics of the Middle East. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when all seemed possible, he delivers in this sweeping and magisterial book the definitive account of this defining time, showing how the choices narrowed and the Middle East began along a road that led to the conflicts and confusion that continue to this day.

A new afterword from Fromkin, written for this edition of the book, includes his invaluable, updated assessment of this region of the world today, and on what this history has to teach us.