Jörn Leonhard
Auteur van Pandora's Box: A History of the First World War
Over de Auteur
Werken van Jörn Leonhard
What Makes the Nobility Noble?: Comparative Perspectives from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (Schriftenreihe… (2011) 3 exemplaren
Bellizismus und Nation : Kriegsdeutung und Nationsbestimmung in Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten 1750-1914 (2014) 1 exemplaar
Vergleich und verflechtung : Deutschland und frankreich im 20. jahrhundert (2015) — Auteur — 1 exemplaar
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geboortedatum
- 1967-05-27
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- Germany
- Woonplaatsen
- Germany
USA - Opleiding
- University of Heidelberg
- Beroepen
- Professor in Modern European History
- Organisaties
- University of Freiburg, Germany
Harvard University
University of Jena
Leden
Besprekingen
Lijsten
Prijzen
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Gerelateerde auteurs
Statistieken
- Werken
- 9
- Leden
- 162
- Populariteit
- #130,374
- Waardering
- 4.3
- Besprekingen
- 3
- ISBNs
- 26
- Talen
- 3
This history begins with an exploration of its antecedents to WWI in an introductory chapter called “Legacies.” Here the author discusses the widespread emancipation movement; transition from monarchies to popular political participation in government; the rise of the nation-state and nationalism; the global spread of progress; and changing self-image of individuals, to list a few. He also explores the changing territorial boundaries with accompanying changes in balances of power, along with rivalry for territories outside of Europe. He devotes a great deal of verbiage to the “Incubation of the War,” with various actors in Europe making calculations and changes based on their assessments on what the others were doing, which was both fed by and increased a “crisis of trust.”
He then goes into “Drift and Escalation”; “Stasis and Movement;” “Wearing Down and Holding Out”; “Expansion and Erosion”; “Onrush and Collapse”; “Outcomes”; “Memories”; and “Burdens.”
In that last section, summing up, Leonhard remarks that there has been a tendency for WWII and the horrors of the Holocaust to be superimposed on the memory of WWI: “there the First World War is not the past but the pre-past.” Regardless, he maintains, we are still today heirs of that [first] war, which seemed to legitimize violence as a response to social change.
The book has extensive references, and includes maps and photographs within the text.
Evaluation: One would be hard-pressed to find a history of WWI so exhaustively comprehensive as this one, as its size - over 900 pages without notes - would suggest. This makes it rather difficult to review except for the barest of summations, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t merit delving into on your own. Unlike many books that concentrate on battle strategy and tactics, and/or “great men” driving history, this history takes place on a loftier plane>. It doesn’t ignore those usual emphases, but puts them into a much broader context than that in which they are usually reported.… (meer)