Neither King nor Kaiser: The Tragedy of World War I

"Första världskriget" is a recently published book by Dick Harrison, Swedish popularizer of world history extraordinaire. This time, Harrison takes on World War I.

"The war to end all wars" is (or should be) part of everyone's common knowledge. Who hasn't heard of the trenches on the Western front, the poison gas, the first tanks or the US entry into the war? And of course the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, which supposedly triggered the whole thing! Harrison's book does contain the usual (and frankly disturbing) information on these things, but he also takes us to other theatres. The war on the Eastern front is extensively covered, as is the Alpine confrontations between Italy and Austria-Hungary, and the complex war in the Balkans. The Armenian Genocide gets a full chapter. The author also exposits on events in the colonial empires, including some I never heard about before. I had no idea that a naval battle between the Germans and the British was fought off the Falkland Islands, or that Brazil was a target of German U-boats! I had heard about the undefeated German colonial troops in East Africa (perhaps in another book by the same author).

World War I has often been depicted as a righteous attempt to stop Germany from making a bid for world domination. Harrison doesn't share such a perspective. He sees little difference between the Entente and the Central Powers. All great powers had colonial empires, or were empires in their own right. All treated their soldiers like cannon fodder. World War I was an unmitigated disaster, and both the war and the absurd peace treaties (such as the Versailles treaty) triggered a whole new series of calamities: Communism, Nazism, the Middle East conflict, and (most notably) World War II. The First World War ended an extended period of peace, progress and prosperity in Europe. It also destroyed the strong belief in progress prevalent at the time - at least, progress through gradual evolution of the existing societies and institutions. In hindsight, World War I shouldn't have been allowed to happen. That being said, the war and its aftershocks were probably inevitable. 

The altogether happier end of World War II and, some would argue, the Cold War gave belief in progress a new boost (despite Mutually Assured Destruction, silent springs and population bombs). And now, a century after the Great War, it feels like we're back to square one. Makes me wonder where we could have been had the war never taken place...