1916 : a global history
Keith Jeffery (Author)
Depicts the global dimensions of the metastasizing conflict. Jeffery moves from region to region, event to event, to demonstrate the astonishing range, variety, and interconnectedness of the wartime experience. Interconnectedness is a crucial point for him; the human element is his focus. Jeffery establishes the integration of local loyalties, differences, and antagonisms into the framework of a worldwide crisis of legitimacy. The war stressed systems on one hand and loyalties on the other. By 1916 the able-bodied adults of whole populations were being mobilized for a conflict with seemingly inexhaustible demands, yet no apparent end was in sight. Taxes, supply shortages, conscription, and casualties generated and exacerbated national, ethnic, social, and economic fault lines from the British Isles to Asian Russia. Yet from state and public perspectives alike, the efforts and sacrifices legitimated violent repression of domestic dissent and extinguished halfhearted efforts to secure a compromise peace
Print Book, English, 2016
Paperback edition
Bloomsbury, London, 2016