Home by Christmas That was the confident cry of the young men who marched to the frontlines in 1914. From London, Paris and Berlin they went in their millions, and in their millions they died. Marc Ferro's work, The Great War looks at the realities faced by those men and their families at home. Mapping tensions old and new, he offers an overview to the Great War. He details the meteoric rise of the bureaucratic classes prior to 1914, and charts the horrors of trench warfare. In particular he documents the reactions of the warring countries' socialist and labour organizations to the conflict. By doing so, Ferro has presents us with a significant reappraisal of the Great War.