Stephen Broadberry, Mark Harrison

World War I formed the 20th century. On the centennial of its end in November 1918, this eBook brings together 20 contributions covering the preparations for, conduct of, and consequences of the war.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Part I: Introduction and overview

Introduction

Stephen Broadberry and Mark Harrison

1 Four myths about the Great War

Mark Harrison

Part II: Preparations for war

2 Too many smoking guns: How a conflict in the Balkans became a world war

Roger L. Ransom

3 Inequality, imperialism, and the outbreak of World War I

Branko Milanovic

4 The prewar arms race and the causes of the Great War

Jari Eloranta

5 Lessons from the financial preparations in the lead-up to World War I

Harold James

6 Endowments for war in 1914

Avner Offer

7 Short poppies: The heights of servicemen in World War I

Timothy J. Hatton

Part III: Conduct of the war

8 World War I: Why the Allies won

Stephen Broadberry

9 Firms and the German war economy: Warmongers for the sake of profit?

Tobias A. Jopp

10 Demise and disintegration: The economic consequences of the Great War in Central Europe

Tamas Vonyo

11 Russia in the Great War: Mobilisation, grain, and revolution

Andrei Markevich

12 Neutral economies in World War I

Herman de Jong and Stefan Nikolić

Part IV: Consequences of the war

13 Walking wounded: The British economy in the aftermath of World War I

Nicholas Crafts

14 The halo of victory: What Americans learned from World War I

Hugh Rockoff

15 August 1914 and the end of unrestricted mass migration

Drew Keeling

16 Inequality: From the Great War to the Great Compression

Walter Scheidel

17 The demographic impact of the Great War: Killings, diseases, and displacements

Robert Millward

18 Europe's first refugee crisis: World War I

Peter Gatrell

19 International organisation and World War I

Patricia Clavin

20 The first great trade collapse: The effects of World War I on international trade in the short and long run

David Jacks