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French President Francois Hollande is issuing an unprecedented invitation to leaders of all 72 nations that took part in the war to join him in Paris for its annual military parade in July. France, which lost more than 1 million soldiers, will also unveil its latest monument to the dead and recall the strategically vital but exceptionally bloody 1914 Battle of the Marne, the confrontation that left as many as half a million soldiers dead or wounded in about a week and led to years of hideous stalemate in the trenches of the Western Front.

Similar events are to take place in neighboring Belgium. Even Germany, considered the chief aggressor, is putting on a number of exhibitions for the centennial, emphasizing the sense of European Union unity so many decades later.

"Our look is at reconciliation, to have as many former enemies together as possible and to show that we have learned from our mistakes," said Norman Walter, a spokesman for the German Embassy in London.


When Prime Minister David Cameron compared the upcoming commemorations to last year's Diamond Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II, many were aghast. They're concerned that the government's four-year plan, encompassing 2,000 exhibitions and events, will end up celebrating a war that should never have taken place. A coalition dubbed "No Glory," which opposes any downplaying of the war's terrible toll, has drawn the support of high-profile Britons, including actors Jude Law and Alan Rickman.

"Any remembrance of World War I that is run in a sane or humane way has to be about warning against any repetition," said Chris Nineham of Stop the War, an organization of peace activists. "That's not a political position. That's a humanitarian position."


"If you read the literature around the event, there's an explicit commitment to rehabilitating one of the most terrible slaughters of the 20th century and indeed of world history," said Nineham, whose group is devising counterprogramming. "The reason why these people are wanting to rewrite history is to free them up to fight more wars in the future. It's not an academic question."

The British government denies that it is trying to glorify World War I and says it welcomes discussion on the historical questions.


"I'm certainly not saying we should celebrate any war…. But on the other hand, if you have to fight a war, it may become important to win it, and so the notion of celebration within that context, for the victorious side, makes sense," Strachan said. "If you happen to believe that the values for which you're fighting are important ones, as they did in 1918 just as they did in 1945, then that also becomes important."

Disagreement over the war's significance, aims and prosecution is, in many ways, as old as the war itself. Polarization increased in the 1920s, particularly with the publication of "All Quiet on the Western Front"; later, the overarching narrative of incompetent generals but heroic soldiers — "lions led by donkeys," in the classic phrase — became widespread, Strachan said.

Unlike the 50th anniversary in 1964, when many veterans of the trenches were still alive, making dispassionate discussion more difficult, there's an opportunity now to look at the war more objectively and multidimensionally, said Nigel Steel, a historian at the Imperial War Museum in London.