The War of the World: History’s Age of Hatred

Description

The world at the beginning of the 20th century seemed for most of its inhabitants stable and relatively benign. Globalizing, booming economies married to technological breakthroughs seemed to promise a better world for most people. Instead, the 20th century proved to be overwhelmingly the most violent, frightening and brutalized in history with fanatical, often genocidal warfare engulfing most societies between the outbreak of the First World War and the end of the Cold War. What went wrong? How did we do this to ourselves? The War of the World comes up with compelling, fascinating answers. It is Niall Ferguson’s masterpiece. List of Illustrations List of Maps Introduction PART I The Great Train Crash 1 Empires and Races 2 Orient Express 3 Fault Lines 4 The Contagion of War 5 Graves of Nations PART II Empire-States 6 The Plan 7 Strange Folk 8 An Incidental Empire 9 Defending the Indefensible 10 The Pity of Peace PART III Killing Space 11 Blitzkrieg 12 Through the Looking Glass 13 Killers and Collaborators 14 The Gates of Hell PART IV A Tainted Triumph 15 The Osmosis of War 16 Kaputt Epilogue: The Descent of the West Appendix: The War of the World in Historical Perspective Illustrations 1900–1928 Illustrations 1929–1942 Illustrations 1943–1953 Sources and Bibliography Acknowledgements