Ring of Fire: A New History of the World at War: 1914 by Alexander Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst

Ring of Fire: A New History of the World at War:1914 by Alexander Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst

What’s “new” about this history is the authors’ focus on the responses by the rank and file, the “everyman” or woman who found themselves embroiled in a war bigger, more catastrophic, than anyone imagined. This is not an entirely unprecedented approach, yet the authors strive for greater inclusion, finding comments from Eastern as well as Western Europe, and memories from Africa and the Pacific as well as America.

Although many Europeans greeted the 1914 outbreak of World War I with enthusiasm, a break from the monotony of a society with few distractions, most found themselves thrust into mechanized carnage. Media on all sides spread rumors and echoed government lies, compounding anxiety at