The Vanquished: Why the First Wo
rld War Failed to End\, 1917-1923 \;by Robert Gerwarth
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For the Western Allies\, November 11\, 1918\, has always be en a solemn date―the end of fighting that had destroyed a generatio n\, but also a vindication of a terrible sacrifice with the total collapse of the principal enemies: the German Empire\, Austria-Hungary\, and the O ttoman Empire. But for much of the rest of Europe this was a day with no m eaning\, as a continuing\, nightmarish series of conflicts engulfed countr y after country.
\nIn The Vanquished\, a highly original an d gripping work of history\, Robert Gerwarth asks us to think again about the true legacy of the First World War. In large part it was not the fight ing on the Western Front that proved so ruinous to Europe&rsquo\;s future\ , but the devastating aftermath\, as countries on both sides of the origin al conflict were savaged by revolutions\, pogroms\, mass expulsions\, and further major military clashes. In the years immediately after the armisti ce\, millions would die across central\, eastern\, and southeastern Europe before the Soviet Union and a series of rickety and exhausted small new s tates would come into being. It was here\, in the ruins of Europe\, that e xtreme ideologies such as fascism would take shape and ultimately emerge t riumphant.
\nAs absorbing in its drama as it is unsettling in its an alysis\, The Vanquished is destined to transform our understandin g of not just the First World War but the twentieth century as a whole.
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