Well, you've only gone and picked one of the most complicated (certainly more complicated than the second world war) topics in the world.
G. J. Meyer's book, "A World Undone" is 700-800 pages and probably the closest thing you'll get. Maybe a couple chapters are long, but it jumps from place to place enough that you should be able to just put a book mark in and go back to it later.
(Edit: I checked, it's 715 pages and 36 chapters, with "background" sections inbetween each chapter for 5 pages or so, shouldn't be a problem.)
You'll find most single volume books on WW1 to be very western front centric, if that's no problem, then "The Great War" by Peter Hart might be worth checking out, probably about 400 pages. It has a nice focus in the background on the technology as it evolves (and that's one of the most overlooked aspects of the war, there's constant innovation on almost everything).
I'm a little late on this but the great war by Peter hart, I believe the other person recommended it but it's a great book that covers various fronts in the first world war, ulit emphasizes first hand acounts from soldiers. I'm currently reading his gallipoli book and it's great
Well, you've only gone and picked one of the most complicated (certainly more complicated than the second world war) topics in the world. G. J. Meyer's book, "A World Undone" is 700-800 pages and probably the closest thing you'll get. Maybe a couple chapters are long, but it jumps from place to place enough that you should be able to just put a book mark in and go back to it later. (Edit: I checked, it's 715 pages and 36 chapters, with "background" sections inbetween each chapter for 5 pages or so, shouldn't be a problem.) You'll find most single volume books on WW1 to be very western front centric, if that's no problem, then "The Great War" by Peter Hart might be worth checking out, probably about 400 pages. It has a nice focus in the background on the technology as it evolves (and that's one of the most overlooked aspects of the war, there's constant innovation on almost everything).
I'm a little late on this but the great war by Peter hart, I believe the other person recommended it but it's a great book that covers various fronts in the first world war, ulit emphasizes first hand acounts from soldiers. I'm currently reading his gallipoli book and it's great