William Kelleher Storey

The First World War was a social and political cataclysm. Nine million soldiers died and millions more suffered mental and physical injuries. Wartime conditions exacerbated the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, which resulted in an estimated fifty million deaths worldwide. The war cost billions of dollars, not only in military expenses but also in damage to property. The war emboldened democrats and feminists as well as nationalists, communists, and fascists. During the war, four major empires collapsed. Afterward, the peace settlements changed boundaries around the world. The people who participated in the First World War had an intense experience of environmental conditions and technological changes. The war’s planners calculated how many soldiers, horses, and cannons could be moved to the front lines and then pushed through enemy territory. In their plans, they had to balance manpower, technology, and geography. The war itself was fought in a variety of environments. Today we tend to remember the trenches of the Western Front, but the war was fought in open spaces, too, as well as in forests, deserts, and mountains. The war also had an economic and ecological impact far beyond the battlefields.The soldiers who experienced the war reflected on the terrors of new weapons and on the degradation of life in filthy conditions. Artists, musicians, and writers described these conditions in order to make a variety of points against the war—and for it. Meanwhile on the home fronts, the war was a war of food. Food shortages were deliberately created through naval blockades, while food surpluses were created through intensive agriculture as well as relief efforts. This book provides a short narrative history of the First World War that takes into account human decisions and experiences as well as environmental and technological factors.