Unfortunately, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

When you're a teenager used to everybody telling you how smart you are and you're reading books like this it's very easy to imagine yourself as this sort of uber-competent, hyper-focused robot dedicated to Work, and so you think you are the kind of person this ideology is made for. "I'd be able to be super rich and influential so long as I don't let the parasites get in my way!"

It's taken me 2 decades and a lot of humble pie to realize how absolutely shitty those books and that worldview are. Looking back on it, those books were absolute poison that gave me such a shitty outlook on life and other people that it became almost impossible to function in the real world.

I am pretty interested in the Franlin Expedition--I found the book because of my obsession, not the other way around.

The book is insanely thoroughly researched, at least as far as we knew at the time of publishing. Basically every body ever found on King William Island is given a name and personality in the story, and we find out how they came to be where they were found in the coming years.

That said...I don't really feel like the tubaaq really worked for me. Especially not with the massive lore dump in the last chapter trying to unravel the mystery all at once. Basically everything about the last chapter bugged me, tbh, especially the main character's resolution.

I don't think tha'ts really true any more. The Guns of August is nearly 60 years old at this point. WW1 Scholarship has come a long way since then.

The thing about the Guns of August, though, is that it's just a * pleasure* to read. It's such a rare feat to find good history books that are actually enjoyable page-turners, and The Guns of August is definitely that.

I have a pretty good knowledge base on the subject, but I generally prefer non-fiction:

• The guns of august (tuchmann) -- well written, but extremely out of date. Book was written in the 60s and isn't really taken as a source now.

• The Proud Tower (tuchmann) -- A portrait of the world just before WW1. Really interesting as it highlights the things the war would alter.

• The Somme (Hart) -- Absolutely massive account of the pivotal 1916 battle.

• The Great Influenza (Barry) -- Book about the end of the war and how it was influenced by the massive plague raging through the world at the end of the war.

• How I filmed the War (Mains) -- travellogue and memior of a ww1 era camera operator who went to the front lines and filmed the battles as they happened. If you've ever seen that big old video of a mine going off under a hill side, this is the guy who filmed it.

• Gallipoli (FitzSimmons) -- Book about the 1915 battle. I didn't really love it but it was informative.

• War of Attrition (Philpott) -- academic book about the use of attritional strategies in ww1

• Three Armies on the Somme (Philpott) -- academic book about the tactics of the french, german, british troops in 1916

• a world undone (Meyer) -- Probably the best place to start, as this is a comprehensive chronology of the war, covering all the major battles like loos, verdun, passchendaele, etc.

• The Sleepwalkers (Clark) -- history book about the situation in europe just prior to the war, and trying to determine who actually started the war in the first place.

• A Storm in Flanders (Groom) -- specifically focuses on the so called "Ypres Salient", an extremely difficult section where the fighting was intense pretty much the whole war continuiously. Includes descriptions of the first use of gas warfare at the 2nd battle of Ypres.

• Breakdown (Downing) -- academic text about the prevalence and treatment of shell shock, specifically with regards to the battle of the somme

• The First World War (keegan) -- like a world undone, this is a general summary of the war.

• Castles of Steel (Massie) -- huge text, covers almost every aspect of the navel aspect of ww1, including the huge battle of jutland. Very well written and quite an enjoyable read as well as informative.

• Fighting the Great War at Sea (Friedman) -- TBH not as good as Massie's book. I was hoping it was more about tactics and technology of the battleships, but instead it focuses more on the logistics of blockade.

• Pandora's Box (Leonhard) -- overview of the war written by a german author, which is unusual, since most english language texts use primarily english sources.

• Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror (Poole) -- art history account of the ways that modern horror traces threads back to the experiences of people in ww1. More a series of essays than a comprehensive text.

• Imperial Germany and War, 1871-1918: Modern War Studies -- deep dive into the tactics and equipment development between the wars the german empire fought at the turn of the century.

• The Woman's Hour (The Great fight to win the vote) -- concurrently with the War in europe, US women were winning their right to vote.

• Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris (Kershaw) -- biography of hitler, includes his time and service in ww1, as well as how that experience affected him and his later views.

• The Coming of the Third Reich (Evans) -- Bridges the time between WW1 and WW2, helps elucidate how the failures of ww1 set the groundwork for ww2.

• The Red Flag: A history of Communism (Priestland) -- history of communism, which obviously plays a big part as to why the end of the war happened the way it did with the Russian Empire collapsing.

• Dead Wake: The last crossing of the lusitania (Larson) -- Account of the sinking of the Lusitania, which was pivotal for bringing the US into the war on the allied side.

• The White War: LIfe and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1918 (Thompson) -- Good account of the small Italian Front of the war, which was fought in very mountanous terrain and had many of it's own miseries.

And I think that's all I have in my library. There are a few I remember reading but couldn't find the author/title for, but this should get you started.

Looking at the list, I wish I had some more dedicated texts to what the home front was like, and more texts specifically focusing on the ways the war empowered women. Something I should look for.

edit: I highlighted the ones most relevant to your query regarding arts and culture. I can also suggest The Modern Scholar: WW1: The Great War and th World it Made lecture series, which has serveral excellent lectures on the ways the war affected different types of art.

oh, I also remembered this really lovely little french book called "A Very Long Engagement", a fiction book about a young woman desperate to find her lover in the years directly after the war ended. Really quite a good read, I loved every page. There's a movie as well, and it's also quite enjoyable.

Toxic masculinity. A good many men would be insulted if you said "you're just like your mother" because it's "emasculating them".