This is my informed recommendation for further reading on WW1. There is a mix of high quality academic work; some accessible military histories; and some selected literary material. I have read everything here except those items marked (*partly) and (**not yet). If you were to read this lot, you'd be very well-informed. If I find time and inspiration, I may add in a guidance commentary to the various sections.
If I were asked recommend
just one item, what would it be? I'd say Chris Clark's quite brilliant, forensically-researched diplomatic history. The opening chapters on Serbian politics, 1880-1914, are breath-taking. Hastings (2013) describes Serbia as "a wasps' nest"; Clark (2013), as "a rogue state". They're right: the problem began here.
Pre-1989: the classical debate – Germany to blame
*Fritz Fischer (1961) (2007), Germany’s Aims in the First World War
Barbara Tuchman (1962), The Guns of August
AJP Taylor (1969), The First World War & War Timetables
Andreas Hillgruber (1981), Germany and the Two World Wars
Post-1989: the modern debate - Sharing the blame
Niall Ferguson (1998), The Pity of War
**Annika Mombauer (2002), Origins of the First World War: Controversies and Consensus
Christopher Clark (2013), The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went To War in 1914
Margaret MacMillan (2013, The War That Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War
**Sean McMeekin (2013), The Russian Origins of the First World War
The military debate – Lions led by Donkeys?
Max Hastings (2013), Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War, 1914
Alan Clark (1991), The Donkeys
Michael Howard (2007), The First World War: a Very Short Introduction
Cultural legacy
Charles Emmerson (2013), 1913: The World Before The Great War
David Reynolds (2013), The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century
**Frank Furedi (2014), The First World War: Still No End in Sight
Poetry and Literature
David Roberts (1996), Minds at War: the Poetry and Experience of the First World War
Pat Barker (1991-95), Regeneration Trilogy
Sebastian Faulks (1994), Birdsong
Ernest Hemingway (1929), A Farewell to Arms
Erich Remarque (1928), All Quiet on the Western Front
Finally, if your appetite remains unsatisfied, there is
this blockbuster. At 2340pp. and £240.00, I’m leaving this one to you.