To Arms

is Hew Strachan's most complete and definitive study of the opening of the First World War. Now, key sections from this magisterial work are published as individual paperbacks, each complete in itself, and with a new introduction by the author.

The First World War was not just fought in the trenches of the western front. It embraced all of Africa. Many of those who fought this white man's war were black. The dangers they confronted went beyond those of the battlefield. They fell prey to malaria and dysentery, and they were attacked by lions and crocodiles.

But it was a vast and spectacular theatre of operations, in which great personalities - thrusting German officers like Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, or big-game hunters like Peter Pretorious - could impose themselves. Embracing the perspectives of all the nations who fought there, this is the first ever full account of the Great War in Africa.