By the outbreak of the First World War, photography was no longer in its infancy. At first, small pocket cameras enabled informal, personal pictures to be made by men at the front, but the dangers of uncontrolled photography were realised by those in power. After the arrival of official photographers, professional photography could be used both to document this unprecedented conflict and to serve the patriotic mood. The scale of the conflict was matched by the extent to which it was photographed. Imperial War Museums now holds nearly half a million photographs of the First World War generated by all the combat nations. For the first time an attempt has been made to construct a single visual narrative of the war in one all-encompassing book drawn from this unparalleled archive. The result is a monumental publication with which to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the war. Though the book is an unsparing presentation of the evidence, it provides an informed commentary on the...