Captain B.H. Liddell Hart is the foremost authority on World War I. In The Real War, the author has fused exhaustive research and creative brilliance with brevity and precision. Thus we have in one volume the war transformed into literature -- an understandable, kaleidoscopic masterwork of military history. - Back cover.

The origins of the war -- The opposing forces and plans -- 1914 : The clinch -- 1915 : The deadlock -- 1916 : The "dog-fall" -- 1917 : The strain -- 1918 : The break -- Epilogue.