Towards A Comparative History Of World War I. Some Reflexions

摘要

In the decade or so before 1914, many European countries enjoyed a brisk trade in fictional accounts of future war. Although rooted in the realities of contemporary politics (hence their claim to realism), the images that they conjured up were frequently apocalyptic - full of foreboding, rather than of adventure. These anticipations of the war to come recognised two possible consequences of a war in Europe: that the impact would be felt in the colonies of the great powers, and that the outcome would fundamentally revise the international order. In Germany such fictions used a portentous word that anticipated not only the awful reality of such a war but also the vocabulary which in due course other peoples too would adopt: they called this war of the future Der Weltkrieg.