William Philpott
Author
Professor William Philpott teaches the history of warfare in the Department of War Studies, King' College London, an internationally renowned centre for the study of war and conflict. He taught modern European and international history in a number of British universities, before joining King's College in 2001 as their historian of the First World War. He specialises in the history of Anglo-French relations, British strategy, and the military operations of the French army, and has published several books and more than twenty scholarly...
Latest Release
War of Attrition by William Philpott
The magnum opus of the First World War, from the outstanding historian at the King's College Department of War Studies.
The First World War was too big to be grasped by its participants. In the retelling of their war in the competing memories of leaders and commanders, and the anguished fiction of its combatants, any sense of order and purpose, effort and achievement, was missing.
Drawing on the experience of front-line soldiers, munitions workers, politicians and those managing the vast economy of industrialised warfare, War of Attrition explains for the first time why and how this new type of conflict born out of industrial society was fought as it was. It was the first mass war in which the resources of the fully mobilised societies strained every sinew in a conflict over ideals - and the humblest and highest were all caught up in the national enterprise.
In a stunning narrative, this brilliant and necessary reassessment of the whole war cuts behind the myth-making to reveal the determination, organization and ambition on all sides.
