Global War, Global Catastrophe

Maartje Abbenhuis is Professor in Modern History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of several books on the international history of the nineteenth century and the First World War, including An Age of Neutrals (2014) and The First Age of Industrial Globalization (co-authored, 2019).Ismee Tames is Professor in History at Utrecht University and Senior Researcher at NIOD, Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her most recent publication is Fighters across Frontiers: Transnational Resistance in Europe, 1936-48 (co-edited with Robert Gildea, 2020).

• AcknowledgementsNote on SourcesList of IllustrationsIntroduction: A Total Global Tragedy1. A World of War before 19142. Germany’s Invasion of Belgium and the Expectations of ‘Civilized’ War3. Short-War Ambitions: The Global Importance of Britain’s Declaration of War4. Long-War Realities: Economic Warfare and the Evolution of Total War in 19155. The ‘Barbarian’ Next Door: Total War at Home and Abroad in 19156. The Test of Endurance: Rethinking the War in 19167. Nothing Stays the Same: Revolutionary Transformations in 19178. The End of Neutrality? The Global Importance of the United States’ Declaration of War9. Exit… 1918-1919Select BibliographyIndex

A fresh perspective on the First World War and its disastrous global reach… raises relevant, new historical questions, and, in the context of today’s heightened international tensions, calls for reflection on how a global order can produce a global catastrophe when major powers allow regional conflicts to escalate.