Here is an excerpt from my latest project, “World War I: The Unraveling of the World”. I am still looking for reviews. If you are interested in reviewing the next High Point History Series book, email me at jace@highpointhistory.com. The following excerpt is from the conclusion of “World War I: The Unraveling of the World”.
“People today think of World War I as a war fought in trenches in Northeastern France, which it was. But the global story of World War I has been neglected and in some ways, forgotten. This conflict changed the way the world was. It changed economics, leading to hyperinflation in Germany and industrial boom in the United States. It changed literature and the arts. The random, nonsensical, postmodern Dadaist movement emerged from the Great War. Ernest Hemingway based some of his greatest works of literature on the war, such as “A Farewell To Arms”. Society was transformed, women were given the right to vote, and African-Americans continued to fight for their own civil rights. Maps were changed, over half a dozen new nations popped up in Eastern Europe alone. Politics changed, Communism was born, Fascism took hold of several nations. I find it ironic that some of the nations which played an arguably smaller part in the grand scheme of things came away from the war with their entire history transformed. Nations like Japan and the United States were affected by the Great War in ways that were unimaginable. The First World War directly and indirectly resulted in the following: the independence of India and all of the Decolonization of the British and French empires in fact, the Second World War, the creation of the state of Israel, the rise of Japan and the U.S.-Japan War (World War II), Women’s Suffrage, Prohibition, Civil Rights, the rise of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, the Postmodern movement in literature and philosophy, the rise of Mussolini and the Fascist party in Italy, and the formation of modern Turkey, just to name a few. There is no doubt about it, the First World War changed the world forever.”
Note: This post is part of a series of blogpost on the First World War, leading up to the release of “World War I: The Unraveling of the World” by Jace Bower in the Fall of 2014. To see other posts in this series, type “Unraveling” in the search bar located in the top right corner of this page.