A World on Edge

September 15, 2018
A unique look at the end of World War I from a vast array of nationalities.The war was fought by empires and their subjects in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. From the Czechs desperate for their own homeland to the Arabs who gained freedom from the Ottoman Empire, the end of the war delivered fulfillment, postponement, and desperation. Schönpflug (History/Free Univ., Berlin; co-editor: Gender History in a Transnational Perspective: Networks, Biographies, Gender Orders, 2014, etc.) offers a cogent, illuminating narrative based on an astounding amount of research. He includes minutiae such as the birth of the poppy as well as the end of a host of empires--Ottoman, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and German--and he deftly incorporates numerous individual reactions to the first days of peace, including that of Harry Truman. As the author ably demonstrates, the conceptions of peace among the Allies were widely varied. France demanded draconian reparations, as opposed to Woodrow Wilson's lofty ideals. The English and other Europeans, constrained by traditions and their vassals, proposed more viable solutions. Wilson's Fourteen Points, particularly national self-determination, encouraged people like the Irish, Vietnamese, Indians, Czechs, and Syrians and frightened the empires who guarded their holdings--however, their hope was to be postponed. Germany was without a viable government, and the Allies refused to supply food until there was a democratically elected government. Since Berlin was rife with revolutionary movements, this was nearly impossible. The author also checks in on contemporary artists and writers such as Paul Klee, Georges Grosz, and Virginia Woolf, who all expressed disappointment and rage at the circumstances around them. "Instead of bringing about the peace so passionately longed for," writes Schönpflug, "the bitter struggle for a better future only brought new violence and claimed millions of new victims."A highly thorough yet refreshingly concise examination of the follies and failures of the great peace of Nov. 11, 1918. A must for World War I collections.

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November 1, 2018

From "Flanders Fields" and the last ghastly charges between trenches to the parades for the Harlem Hellfighters and celebrations throughout Europe, historian Schonpflug (Free Univ., Berlin) explores the changed world caused by World War I by following the lives of both ordinary and famous people during the last stages of the war. He succeeds in documenting the vastly transformed landscape as well as the dashed hopes for world peace in this book that follows history solely in order to provide context to the people chronicled. The epilog gives the final disposition of nearly two dozen actors in this play. Schonpflug profiles familiar names such as President Harry Truman and German politician Rudolf Hess along with lesser-known names such as teacher Moina Michael, who conceived of using the poppy as a symbol of remembering those who served in the Great War. African American war hero Henry Johnson dies alone in 1929, not recognized for his valor until posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2015. VERDICT This solid read sets up 20th-century history for casual readers and serves as a stark reminder to historians.--Harry Willems, Great Bend, KS

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