A Precarious Peace

The First World War was an industrialized mass war. The longer it lasted, the more it changed the societies that were involved and the faster it confounded the knowledge of politicians and diplomats. How to demobilize a whole society without risking an economic collapse? How to justify the horrendous sacrifices? And how to ensure that this disaster doesn’t happen again? With an eye toward the global context, Jörn Leonhard shows how the world slipped from war into peace. He describes the soaring plans as well as overwhelming problems and shaky compromises that were difficult to reconcile with the ambitious expectations. The war did finally come to an end. But the way it ended left the world with a difficult legacy – one that we have to deal with untill today.