Book launch -- Framing the First World War: How Divergent Views Shaped a Global Conflict ISWS Book Launch Event

Book launch – Framing the First World War: How Divergent Views Shaped a Global Conflict Edited by Michael Finch, Aimée Fox & David Morgan-Owen University Press of Kansas, 2025 The character of the conflict that erupted in 1914 defied the expectations of many political leaders and military analysts. Despite the mountains of books and articles published on the First World War, there has been surprisingly little systematic or comparative research on how military commanders and politicians framed and interpreted the conflict—or, indeed, on how they understood war itself—and how that understanding shaped their decision-making. This book examines how the military forces that contested the First World War framed the conflict they were involved in and how those perspectives shaped and influenced the ways in which they sought to understand, conduct, and respond to the war. This launch event will feature presentations from multiple contributors to the project, who will discuss their individual chapters and the project as a whole. Chaired by David Morgan-Owen, the speakers will be: Dr Aimée Fox Dr Fox joined the School of International Relations at St Andrews in 2025. She previously taught at King's College London and the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on the conduct and experience of warfare in the twentieth century with a broad interest in how military organisations innovate and change in historic and contemporary contexts. Dr Fox will discuss her chapter on ‘Between You and Me and the Bedpost: Gossip and the Social Life of the British Armed Forces in the First World War'. Dr Sofya Anisimova Dr Anisimova earned her PhD from St Andrews in 2023. She is currently an ERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University College Dublin working on the project ‘Age of Civil Wars in Europe, 1914-1949'. Her research interests include the theory of strategy and social history of the First World War. Dr Anisimova will discuss her chapter on ‘Franco-Russian Information Exchange and Russia's Learning of Trench Warfare in 1915–1916'. Prof Sir Hew Strachan Sir Hew is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews. He is an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and a Life Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His books include The First World War: Volume 1: To Arms (2001), and The First World War: an illustrated history (2003). Sir Hew will discuss his chapter ‘The Influence of the First World War on Strategy'.