The History of the Great War is a series of 29 volumes covering the military operations of the British Army during the First World War. The full title is the History of the Great War Based on Official Documents but the series is usually referred to as the British Official History. It was produced by the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence under the control of official historian Brigadier-General Sir James Edmonds. The first volume was published in 1923 and the final volume was published in 1949.
The History of the Great War was written as a technical history for military staff, rather than as a popular history for consumption by the general public. British historian John Keegan, critical of the dry, featureless prose, said "the compilers... have achieved the remarkable feat of writing an exhaustive account of one of the world's greatest tragedies without the display of any emotion at all.".
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