Die Büchse der Pandora

This overall history of the First World War is unrivalled. Never before has the primordial catastrophe of the 20th century been told in such a multi-layered way: European comparative, global in perspective, sovereign in presentation. Jörn Leonhard's grandiose synthesis unfolds an impressive panorama. It shows how the world went into the war and how it came out of it a completely different one. It looks not only at the states and nations, but also at the empires in Europe and far beyond. It describes the dynamic change in the scope of action, the rapid military developments and the ever more rapid changes in war societies. And it brings back to life the experiences of very different contemporaries: military men, politicians and writers, men and women, soldiers and workers. However, the violent experiences of the World War did not end with the peace treaties after 1918, but continued in Europe and the whole world in the name of new ideas of order and radical ideologies - as if Pandora's box had been opened, that horror vessel of ancient mythology from which all the evils of the world escaped when the lid was lifted against the advice of the gods.