1914

French, John Denton Pinkstone, Earl of Ypres, 1852Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 725K words
Chapters: 73

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.1914 by Earl of Ypres John Denton Pinkstone FrenchAuthor: French, John Denton Pinkstone, Earl of Ypres, 1852-1925,Language: English, Class: D501: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: World War I (1914-1918), Release Date: Feb 6, 2008

Editor's review

This book is the account by Field Marshal Sir John French, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in the early stages of the First World War, of the 1914 campaign. As a figure at the highest level of command, his writing offers a command perspective on the British Army from mobilization and deployment to the early battles of Mons and the Marne, and includes his explanation of his judgments of the situation and his responsibilities. Its value lies in showing how decision-makers understood the battlefield rather than in providing a neutral panorama; readers can see how command structures, allied coordination, and limits of information shaped actions. It should be read alongside historical scholarship, with attention to the author's tendency to defend himself. The free Project Gutenberg electronic edition makes it easy to search for persons, units, and dates, and is suitable as source reading for enthusiasts and researchers of First World War military history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Military history readers studying the Western Front in the early First World War
Readers interested in the British command system and high-level decision-making
Students needing firsthand memoir material for specialized research
Enthusiasts accustomed to reading English historical sources and willing to make comparisons

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a comprehensive general history or introductory overview of the First World War
General readers who prefer literary narrative and character-driven stories
Those unwilling to examine the author's stance and seeking only conclusions

Reading tips

First gain an outline of the 1914 Western Front campaign, then read this book to situate battles and units.
Compare the author's account of responsibility with later historical scholarship, noting his self-defensive tendency.
Trace British operations along a timeline, recording key decisions and information conditions.
Focus on the mobilization, deployment, and early battle chapters; it is not necessary to give equal weight to all sections.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What stance does the author take in the book?

French was Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in 1914; the book carries the perspective of a commander who was present and explains his judgments of the situation and his responsibilities. Readers should treat it as one side's account and read it against later historical scholarship to understand the decision-making circumstances more fully.

Is this book suitable as an introduction to the First World War?

Not very. It focuses on British high command and operations in 1914 and assumes some familiarity with the early background of the war. Introductory readers should first read a general history of the First World War, then return to this book to see how a decision-maker narrates the same events.

What are the advantages of reading the electronic edition?

Project Gutenberg provides a free English electronic text that makes it easy to search for names, unit designations, and dates, and convenient to excerpt for comparison. For research, it can be read alongside historical works, using search to quickly locate the author's accounts of key battles.

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About the author

French, John Denton Pinkstone, Earl of Ypres, 1852 Author · British · 1852–1925

John Denton Pinkstone French, Earl of Ypres (1852–1925), was a British field marshal. At the outbreak of the First World War he served as commander of the British Expeditionary Force, directing the British Army's early operations on the Continent—the phase of his military career for which he is best known. One work by him is held in this collection, titled 1914. On the available evidence, it centres on that pivotal year and is closely connected to the opening of the war as he experienced it, giving it a distinctly military and historical documentary character. Public information is limited, and the circumstances of its composition, its narrative form and its stylistic features remain to be verified, so its style and influence should not be over-interpreted. A cautious view is that the work may be read as a senior commander's record and recollection of the war's opening, offering some reference value for understanding early military decisions and conditions on the Western Front.