What is total war?

A question i am currently wrestling with is, what is "total war"? In my current TMA i am being asked if total war is an adequate way to describe the First World War. Of course first of all you need to define what total war is.

The term first seems to have popped up in the 19th century and nowadays refers to unlimited warfare using the whole resources of the combatants. Of course in reality total war is very hard to achieve though massive nuclear armouries probably have made the potential for unlimited destruction of an enemy achievable. In WW1 that potential did not exist so can it be called a total war. Well logically no but in reality yes. The conflict was on an unprecedented scale and saw a level of destructive power far beyond the imagination of people even a few decades before. It also saw the line between combatant and non-combatant broken with civilians targetted on purpose such as in the case of the Zeppelin raids on the UK. Nations threw their whole resources into the fight with governments taking over industries, mass conscription and rationing to carry on the fight. The fight itself no longer being "just" to destroy the enemy army but the enemy's ability to wage war, even it's ability to exist.

These differences mark WW1 out from previous conflicts though "total war" surely can be applied to earlier wars. The question comes though with the Second World War. It saw even greater destruction across the world culminating in the first use of atomic weapons. If WW2 is a total war then does that mean WW1 no longer can be? Well that is an argument of some though i feel wars have to be compared with the past and not their future.

Because of that total war does adequately describe WW1. Now i just have to write an essay on this...