Americans have continued to believe that progress is built into history. Ever since, Europe has felt an underlying pessimism, a sense of danger and disorder that the United States hasn’t shared. The contrast between American and European perceptions of the world order in the 20th and 21st centuries is incomprehensible without considering the catastrophe of 1914–18.
Proportionately higher losses were suffered in Russia, Serbia, and Ottoman Turkey, where a war of 20th-century firepower was fought under 19th-century sanitary conditions. Two million German soldiers died, along with about 1 million British troops, counting those from the colonies and dominions. Europe suffered a bloodbath such as the world had never seen. The deaths of more than 110,000 Americans in uniform, half to the Spanish flu, were equivalent to just one-quarter of the death toll in the French army alone during the first four months of the war. See Moreīoth the war and the peace that followed have marked our world in indelible ways. Check out the full table of contents and find your next story to read.
