Research Topics
War and Revolution
Why might it be correct to argue that the Great War conditioned or determined the subsequent history of the 20th century?
In August 1914 Europe plunged into war -- a Great War, as it was quickly named. Although popular opinion remarked that the war would be over by Christmas, the war raged on until November 1918, when German forces surrendered. At war's end, the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires ceased to exist, Russia had its revolution, and Germany was forced to accept the "war guilt" clause at Versailles. Nine million men lost their lives between 1914 and 1918, thus creating the "lost generation" of the interwar years.
- Friedrich Von Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War (1914)
Bernhardi argues for an aggressive war of expansion in which Germany had to be prepared mentally, morally, and materially.
- Henri Barbusse, Under Fire: The Story of a Squad (1916)
Barbusse wrote a fictional account of the French solider at the front line whose only preoccupation was the quality of the food.
- Sir Douglas Haig's 2nd Despatch (Somme), December 23, 1916
The Commander-in-Chirf of the British Expeditionary Force, Haig describes to Battle of the Somme, July-November 1916.
- Wilfred Owen, Dulce Et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen's poem gives us the "unofficial" meaning of the Great War - "The Old Lie" - that it is good to die for one's country.
- The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 3, 1918)
Signed between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Central Powers, this treaty brought Russia out of the war - Russia lost one-third of her population and upward of 50% of her industry.
- Lenin, Six Theses On The Immediate Tasks Of The Soviet Government (c. April 1918)
Lenin's call for economic reco0very, the organization and control of production, increased labor discipline and the creation of a "proletarian dictatorship."
- Woodrow Wilson, The Fourteen Points (January 8, 1918)
Speech delivered by President Wilson to a joint session of Congress that created a blueprint for future European peace.