What the title says. He's fairly well-read for his age. He's more interested in science and technology. But I think he also caught the "history bug" from all my comments back when they were playing Civilization.
He's looking for a book that describes WW1, the whole thing, not just a slice. Is there a book that strikes a good balance between comprehensiveness and accessibility, that would not be too abstract or too scholarly for a high school kid?
TBH, I would read that book too. :)
Thanks!
Saul David's 100 Days to Victory is, in my opinion, the best review of the entire war. It would be a big undertaking for a 15 year old, but the chapters lend themselves to out of context reading, so he could skip around a bit. There is no better look at the global scope of the war: combining home front social revolutions, economics, politics, and battle-by-battle narrative from start to finish.
Joe Sacco's The Great War is a masterpiece, and would be great for a younger WWI enthusiast. It is limited to the first day of the Somme, but is full of important details that really bring the war to life: I can't think of a better way to open the floodgates into more reading. It does contain illustrated gore, but probably no worse than the video game, and any discerning book on the topic will be a bit graphic- it was a messy 4 years of human history.
"The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War" by Peter Hart. It is incidentally one the them main references for the Youtube channel "The Great War", which may be interesting as well.
Great to hear about a 15 year old with his interest.
I really enjoyed "A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918." by G.J. Meyer. Great read with some good background information about the countries involved. Could spark even more historical interest!
Not sure if it's "reading" material per se, but he might be interested in a World War 1 atlas. I can't attest to the offers on Amazon, but this visual history for example seems to cover with visual examples key battles of the war, key figures in the war, weapons and tactics used in the war, personal accounts, illustrated timelines... it looks a lot more fun than just a straight-forward book.
And this atlas (albeit without photo examples and a steep price tag) promises "a comprehensive visual guide to this complex conflict. It plots the exact course of the land, sea and air campaigns in fine detail, enabling the reader to trace the ebb and flow of the fortunes of all sides. With the aid of more than 160 full-color maps, every theatre of war is covered – from the Western Front to Sumatra, from Gallipoli to Galicia to Ghana, from Dogger Bank to Dalmatia, from Romania to Rhodesia, from the Falklands to Togo to Sinai."
Anyway, I think these could be as good and informative a Battlefield 1 companion as a straightforward text.
Paris 1919 by Margret MacMillan is a good read if he wants to know more about how the world was shaped after the war ended.
Martin Gilbert's The First World War is a good stand-by, it's mostly military focused and Anglocentric, but quite a comprehensive yet readable history. John Keegan's history (also called The First World War) is similar but more streamlined. These are both good general histories that I would recommend.