This is a rich yet succinct account of an underexplored story: the consequences of the Great War for the region which ignited it. It offers a fascinating tapestry: the collapse of Empires, the birth of Turkey and Yugoslavia, Greece as both victor and loser, Bulgaria's humiliating defeat; bitter memories, forced migrations, territorial implications and collective national amnesias. The legacies live on. The contributions in this volume significantly enhance the debate about how the Great War is remembered in South East Europe, and why it still evokes such strong emotions and reactions, more than a century after its beginnings.

Given the destruction and suffering caused by more than four years of industrialised warfare and economic hardship, scholars have tended to focus on the nationalism and hatred in the belligerent countries, holding that it led to a fundamental rupture of any sense of European commonality and unity. It is the central aim of this volume to correct this view and to highlight that many observers saw the conflict as a 'European civil war', and to discuss what this meant for discourses about Europe. Bringing together a remarkable range of compelling and highly original topics, this collection explores notions, images, and ideas of Europe in the midst of catastrophe.

An Irish Independent book of the year.

Did the Versailles Peace Treaty cause World War II?

The Versailles Peace Treaty ― the pact that ended World War I between the German empire and the Allies ― has long been regarded as one of the key causes of World War II. Its requirements for massive reparation payments, it is argued, crippled Germany’s economy, de-stabilised the country’s political life, and paved the way for Hitler.

Here, Jürgen Tampke disputes this commonplace view, suggesting that Germany got away with its responsibility for World War I, that the treaty was nowhere near as punitive as people think, and that the German hyper-inflation of the 1920s was a deliberate policy to minimise the cost of paying reparations.

This is a controversial and important work of revisionist history, which challenges one of the greatest misconceptions of our times.

More than eight decades later, the Great War - particularly the great battles such as the Somme and Verdun - continues to fascinate us and cast long shadows over our world today. In this volume, Peter Simkins re-examines the early years of the war's Western Front, shedding interesting new light on the nature, course, and effects of the fighting in France and Belgium from 1914 to 1916.

Originally published in 1981 and now re-issued with a new Preface, this book contains contributions on key issues such as the origins of the First World War, the psychological impact of that war on the Germans, the enigmatic personality of Walter Rathenau, anti-semitism and paramilitarism, as well as German Ostpolitik during the Weimar period. The collapse of the Weimar Republic is re-examined and this is followed by an analysis of the social basis of the SS leadership corps, German reactions to the defeat in 1945 as observed by the British authorities and finally a wide-ranging comparatiste essay on why Germany did not experience a 20th century revolution in spite of the tremendous upheavals it suffered.

First published in 1940, the original blurb reads: Here is an inquiry how to make a just and lasting peace when the danger of further aggression by Herr Hitler's Germany has been removed. A feature of the book is the stress it lays on Germany's part in forming and fostering a new world order. When the World War ended, cries of "Hang the Kaiser" and "Squeeze the German Orange" hampered the peacemakers and helped to spoil the peace. If that mistake is not to be repeated, public opinion must be prepared for whatever apparent sacrifices may be involved in passing from the old civilization to the new. And if the foundations of the new system are to be well and truly laid, they must rest not only upon the undertakings of governments, but also upon the convictions and the sentiments, the thoughts and the feelings, of individual men and women. To that end people should begin now to think over and discuss with one another how the errors of Versailles are to be avoided and how we are to do better this time. This book by Dr Maxwell Garnett, for 18 years the secretary of the League of Nations Union and Dr H. F. Koeppler will help such thought and talk to prepare the way of lasting peace. Dr Koeppler shows how essential is Anglo-French solidarity in the interests of Germany herself. For the rest he is chiefly concerned with the conflict between German democracy and Prussian Junkerdom as he defines it. He suggests how this conflict may be resolved when the Nazi disciples of the Junkers have left the scene and how Germany may then play an equal part in a new Europe.

The Great War is a landmark history that firmly places the First World War in the context of imperialism. Set to overturn conventional accounts of what happened during this, the first truly international conflict, it extends the study of the First World War beyond the confines of Europe and the Western Front. By recounting the experiences of people from the colonies especially those brought into the war effort either as volunteers or through conscription, John Morrow's magisterial work also unveils the impact of the war in Asia, India and Africa. From the origins of World War One to its bloody (and largely unknown) aftermath, The Great War is distinguished by its long chronological coverage, first person battle and home front accounts, its pan European and global emphasis and the integration of cultural considerations with political.

Warrant for Genocide provides a unique, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the underlying causes of the World War I Armenian genocide. It traces genocide to the origin and history of the long-standing Turko-Armenian discord with the massacres treated as a means to resolve the conflict between a powerful, dominant group and a weak, vulnerable minority.

The World War I destruction of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire was neither an accident nor an aberration. The seeds of the large-scale deportations and massacres of Armenians can be found in the 1919u1920 Turkish Courts Martial documents of leaders of the Young Turk Ittihadist regime. These were replete with xenophobic nationalism, calls for the use of arms to achieve that end, and references to Islam to incite the masses against Armenians. The utmost secrecy, camouflage, and deflection with respect to their plans were evident in what was not said. This was a drastic departure by the regime from its publicly proclaimed posture of egalitarianism, heralding the dawn of a new era of multiethnic harmony and accord in the decaying empire.

Dadrian carefully details these calculated deliberations and the concomitant shift from Ottomanism to Turkism in the radical wing of the regime. He illustrates how this rekindled enmities between dominant Turks and subject minorities. The desire to neutralize or eliminate the opposition helped pave the way to a new and radical nationality policy. To Dadrian, the act of genocide was a draconian method of resolving a lingering conflict.

No analysis of the Armenian genocide can be adequate without understanding the origin, elements, evolution, and escalation of the Turko-Armenian conflict. Dadrian details this admirably, showing that in the final analysis, the Armenian genocide was a cataclysmic by-product of this conflict. Genocide and Holocaust scholars, Armenian area specialists, and human rights activists will consider this an essential addition to the literature.

Originally published in 1963, this book examines the territorial settlement with Germany at the end of the First World War. It approaches it from the standpoint of British official attitudes and policy in order to discover the pre-Paris-Peace-Conference evolution of British governmental thinking on German boundary issues: to bring out the relationship between British attitudes and those of their allies and to determine British influence on the drafting of the territorial provisions of the ill-fated Treaty of Versailles.

The final volume in a four part set covering the First World War, this book includes the Allied attempts to capture Constantinople, the bloody campaigning in Northern Italy, the defence of the Suez Canal and the defeat of the Turkish army in Palestine. The war in North Africa is also covered.

In this second volume devoted to the Western Front of World War I, Peter Simkins describes the last great battles of attrition at Arras, on the Aisne, and at Passchendaele in 1917. The book moves on to relate the successive offenses launched by Germany during the spring and summer of 1918 in an effort to achieve victory or a favorable peace before American manpower proved decisive. Questioning and debunking several myths and assumptions about the conduct of war on the Western Front, the author also looks at the aftermath and legacy of the 'war to end wars'.

'J.P.T. Bury's classic history takes the reader on a switchback ride across violently changing regimes and republics, cultural and artistic movements.' - BBC History Magazine

With the aid of almost 100 photographs from the news archives of Mirrorpix, this book offers readers the opportunity to read a critique and review of the inspirational, moving, shocking and sometimes humorous words of the men and women who experienced The Great War first hand. This book presents a poignant, nostalgic record of the lives of military commanders, ordinary soldiers, politicians, royalty and civilian families whose lives were torn asunder in a four-year conflict that redrew the map of the world.

The year 1916 has recently been identified as "a tipping point for the intensification of protests, riots, uprisings and even revolutions." Many of these constituted a challenge to the international pre-war order of empires, and thus collectively represent a global anti-imperial moment, which was the revolutionary counterpart to the later diplomatic attempt to construct a new world order in the so-called Wilsonian moment. Chief among such events was the Easter Rising in Ireland, an occurrence that took on worldwide significance as a challenge to the established order. This is the first collection of specialist studies that aims at interpreting the global significance of the year 1916 in the decline of empires.

Explores the international consequences of the ending of the First World War

The Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the wake of the war and the boundaries of Europe were redrawn. Many subsequent international crises in the late twentieth century can be traced back to decisions taken in these critical years. The text deals with all the peace treaties and international agreements worked out between 1919 and the Locarno Pact of 1925. Erik Goldstein also looks at the international organizations and practices which came into existence at this time, including the establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice, the creation of an International Labor Organization, the principle of war crimes, and the idea of arms control.

The war of 1914-1918 was a military, political and social disaster. No other war changed the map of Europe so dramatically and more than 15 million people were killed. The dramatic political and social changes of the period were mirrored in the uniforms of the armed forces, and the contrast between pre-war Europe and 1919 could not be more apparent. This unique illustrated book charts the developments in military uniform in fascinating detail: how the remaining reds and blues of 1900 soldiers died out in preference to browns, greys and greens. It also tracks the evolution of hardware and ammunition. Evocative photographs of the struggle and stunning illustrations of the uniforms show in detail the changes, reforms and modifications of all the major powers, Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary. This unprecedented volume is an incredible visual study of the uniforms of a pivotal period of military history, and of its context.

For Home and Empire is the first book to compare voluntary wartime mobilization on the Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand home fronts. Steve Marti shows that collective acts of patriotism strengthened communal bonds, while reinforcing class, race, and gender boundaries. Which jurisdiction should provide for a soldier's wife if she moved from Hobart to northern Tasmania? Should Welsh women in Vancouver purchase comforts for hometown soldiers or Welsh ones? Should Maori enlist with a local or an Indigenous battalion? Such questions highlighted the diverging interests of local communities, the dominion governments, and the Empire. Marti applies a settler colonial framework to reveal the geographical and social divides that separated communities as they organized for war.

The Western Front dominates our memories of the First World War. Yet a million and half men died in North East Italy in a war that need never have happened, when Italy declared war on the Habsburg Empire in May 1915. Led by General Luigi Cadorna, the most ruthless of all the Great War commanders, waves of Italian conscripts were sent charging up the limestone hills north of Trieste to be massacred by troops fighting to save their homelands. This is a great, tragic military history of a war that gave birth to fascism. Mussolini fought in these trenches, but so did many of the greatest modernist writers in Italian and German - Ungaretti, Gadda, Musil, Hemingway. It is through these accounts that Mark Thompson, with great skill and empathy, brings to life this forgotten conflict.

The genocide of Armenians by Turks during the First World War was one of the most horrendous deeds of modern times and a precursor of the genocidal acts that have marked the rest of the twentieth century. Despite the worldwide attention the atrocities received at the time, the massacre has not remained a part of the world's historical consciousness. The parallels between the Jewish and Armenian situations and the reactions of the Jewish community in Palestine (the Yishuv) to the Armenian genocide, which was muted and largely self-interested, are explored by Yair Auron. In attempting to assess and interpret these disparate reactions, Auron maintains a fairminded balance in assessing claims of altruism and self-interest, expressed in universal, not merely Jewish, terms.

While not denying the uniqueness of the Holocaust, Auron carefully distinguishes it from the Armenian genocide reviewing existing theories and relating Armenian and Jewish experience to ongoing issues of politics and identity. As a groundbreaking work of comparative history, this volume will be read by Armenian area specialists, historians of Zionism and Israel, and students of genocide. Yair Auron is senior lecturer at The Open University of Israel and the Kibbutzim College of Education. He is the author, in Hebrew, of Jewish-Israeli Identity, Sensitivity to World Suffering: Genocide in the Twentieth Century, We Are All German Jews, and Jewish Radicals in France during the Sixties and Seventies (published in French as well)

This work shows the importance of analysing the low politics of areas that have traditionally been dominated by high politics. The role of bodies such as the Liberal Summer School and the Women's Liberal Federation are examined, along with the work of thinkers such as JM Keynes and Ramsay Muir. The text should make two major contributions to our knowledge of the role of international relations in British politics in the inter-war years. First, by analyzing the Liberal Party's principles and policies on international relations, it offers a perspective on British Liberalism. Second, by exploring the Liberal Party's alternative to the Baldwin-Chamberlain policy of appeasement, it enters the historical debate on the options open to Britain in the 1930s, and shows that there was a Liberal alternative to appeasement.

The Battle of Caporetto in October 1917 was almost a catastrophic event for Italy. Eighty years after the event, this work reconsiders the meaning of that event in the wider framework of World War I. Following the Central Powers' breakthrough on the Isonzo front, there followed a huge collapse of the Italian army, which lost over half its men and material. Having suffered such losses, Italy was on the brink of total collapse. Yet, by December 1917, Italy had overcome the crisis and remained in the conflict. How did it manage to do this? For Mario Morselli, the answer lies in the poor performance of the Central Empire's military leadership after the initial success of the offensive. In the weeks following the breakthrough, the Austro-Hungarian and German generals proved unable to surmount a series of strategic situations, which negated the value of the original breakthrough. Morselli notes that forcing a surrender was a secondary war aim for the German generals; the recall of German troops to the Western Front was crucial to Italy's survival.

Vivid, succinct, and highly accessible, Heinrich Winkler's magisterial history of modern Germany offers the history of a nation and its people through two turbulent centuries. It is the story of a country that, while always culturally identified with the West, long resisted the political trajectories of its neighbours. This first volume (of two) begins with the origins and consequences of the medieval myth of the 'Reich', which was to experience a fateful renaissance in the twentieth century, and ends with the collapse of the first German democracy. Winkler offers a brilliant synthesis of complex events and illuminates them with fresh insights. He analyses the decisions that shaped the country's triumphs and catastrophes, interweaving high politics with telling vignettes about the German people and their own self-perception. With a second volume that takes the story up to reunification in 1990, Germany: The Long Road West will be welcomed by scholars, students, and anyone wishing to understand this most complex and contradictory of countries.

Are science and technology independent of one another? Is technology dependent upon science, and if so, how is it dependent? Is science dependent upon technology, and if so how is it dependent? Or, are science and technology becoming so interdependent that the line dividing them has become totally erased? This book charts the history of technoscience from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century and shows how the military-industrial-academic complex and big science combined to create new examples of technoscience in such areas as the nuclear arms race, the space race, the digital age, and the new worlds of nanotechnology and biotechnology.

Using original documents from the US Army Military History Institute (including extracts from letters from serving soldiers, from their diaries, from their later accounts of their experiences and from official reports and papers), this book recalls the experiences of Americans who fought in World War I. Individual chapters cover different periods, from Enlistment to Victory, in a chronological fashion. Other topics, such as weaponry, medical services and entertainment are also featured.

The author argues that the way the British Government managed dissent during World War I is important for understanding the way that the war ended. He argues that, from humble beginings in 1914, a comprehensive and effective system of suppression had been developed by the war's end in 1918, with a still greater level of suppression prepared but not implemented. The general characteristics of the system of dissent manage ment were that it was incremental, growing in proportion to the degree of apprehended threat to the war effort; it never became more repressive than a working consensus of the population was prepared to tolerate; and it was calculated to be effective against the particular nature of British anti-war dissent.