The Great War and the Twentieth Century

Donald Levy

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2000
• eBook ISBN: 9780300147612
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War I
• Index: History

World War I, the first "total war" in history, set in motion profound changes in the economies, demographics, and philosophies of the warring states. In this book, leading experts on the Great War discuss its causes, character, and legacy. Their writings show that to study World War I is to encounter not only the dissolution of the four defeated empires - Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey - but also the collapse of the optimistic assumption of progress that had defined the nineteenth century. The analysis of the Great War, in fact, provides an essential framework for our understanding of the entire twentieth century. The book draws together military history, international history, and cultural history to offer a wide-ranging summary of current knowledge and debate regarding the First World War.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I. The Framework
• Chapter 1. The First World War Reconsidered
• Chapter 2. The Eastern Front
• Chapter 3. The Politics of the Two Alliances
• Part II. The Waging of War
• Chapter 4. Technology in the First World War The View from Below
• Chapter 5. Narrative and Identity at the Front “Theory and the Poor Bloody Infantry”
• Chapter 6. Mobilizing Economies for War
• Chapter 7. Labor and Labor Movements in World War I
• Part III. The Shadow of War
• Chapter 8. The War, Imperialism, and Decolonization
• Chapter 9. The War, the Peace, and the International State System
• Chapter 10. Of Men and Myths The Use and Abuse of History and the Great War
• Chapter 11. The Cultural Legacy of the Great War
• Index