Slightly more than one hundred years after the outbreak of the First World War, joining the reflection of social sciences eagerly grasping the centenary we have several powerful reasons to approach the historical battle events in a singular and enterprising way, in the context of information history.

Although the renowned British historian, Dave Muddiman has already emphasized the importance of the information history aspects of the First World War in a few of his communications, no synthetic work has yet been written on the subject. On the occasion of the centenary of the Great War, the Hungarian Committee of UNESCO’s Information for All Programme initiated the publishing of an edited volume with international participation to start a discourse on the details of information history of the First World War. The adaptation of the information-centered viewpoint makes it possible for the scholars to highlight the information history aspects of the covered era from their own research and to collectively discuss important issues, such as

• The destruction and loss of information
• The positive impact of the war on information creation/generation
• The flow of information and its role on the frontlines, in the hinterland or in-between
• The visual aspects of the war
• Realignment of schemas, cultural patterns and mental models

It merits particular attention that in this collection of essays, besides the European theatre of operations, our outstanding and innovative authors have found subjects worthy of analysis on the basis of information history in Africa, in Asia and in the Middle East.