This volume offers a revisionist view of World War I. The author contends that the popular view that World War I was, in the words of historian John Keegan, "tragic and unnecessary", is wrong. It is his argued belief that such a conclusion does not represent the cutting edge of research into the most controversial conflict in British history. Based on 20 years of research, as well as reflecting the interpretations of the revisioniest school of historians based around the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, the Imperial War Museum and the British Commission for Military History, this book challenges the fundamental assumptions underpinning the traditional belief that World War I was a wholly futile conflict.