The story of the aftermath of World War I, a transformative time when a new world seemed possible―told from the vantage of people, famous and ordinary, who lived through the turmoil November 1918. The Great War has left Europe in ruins, but with the end of hostilities, a radical new start seems not only possible, but essential, even unavoidable. Unorthodox ideas light up the age: new politics, new societies, new art and culture, new thinking. The struggle to determine the future has begun.
Sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, whose son died in the war, is translating sorrow and loss into art. Captain Harry Truman is running a men’s haberdashery in Kansas City, hardly expecting he will soon go bankrupt―and then become president of the United States. Moina Michael is about to invent the “remembrance poppy,” a symbol of sacrifice that will stand for generations to come. Meanwhile Virginia Woolf is questioning whether that sacrifice was worth it, and George Grosz is so revolted by the violence on the streets of Berlin that he decides everything is meaningless. For rulers and revolutionaries, a world of power and privilege is dying―while for others, a dream of overthrowing democracy is being born.
With novelistic virtuosity, Daniel Schönpflug describes this watershed time as it was experienced on the ground―open-ended, unfathomable, its outcome unclear. Combining a multitude of acutely observed details, Schönpflug shows us a world suspended between enthusiasm and disappointment, in which the window of opportunity was suddenly open, only to quickly close shut again.

A World on Edge: The End of the Great War and the Dawn of a New Age

History

Schönpflug, Daniel

Europe

Picador

'Moving and inspired book ... An evocative and deeply affecting requiem for what might have been.' - Douglas Smith, author of Rasputin and Former People
A World on Edge reveals Europe in 1918, left in ruins by World War I. But with the end of hostilities, a radical new start seems not only possible, but essential, even unavoidable. Unorthodox ideas light up the age like the comets that have recently passed overhead: new politics, new societies, new art and culture, new thinking. The struggle to determine the future has begun.
The sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, whose son died in the war, was translating sorrow and loss into art. Ho Chi Minh was working as a dishwasher in Paris and dreaming of liberating Vietnam, his homeland. Captain Harry S. Truman was running a men’s haberdashery in Kansas City, hardly expecting that he was about to go bankrupt – and later become president of the United States. Professor Moina Michael was about to invent the 'remembrance poppy', a symbol of sacrifice that will stand for generations to come. Meanwhile Virginia Woolf had just published her first book and was questioning whether that sacrifice was worth it, while the artist George Grosz was so revolted by the violence on the streets of Berlin that he decides everything is meaningless. For rulers and revolutionaries, a world of power and privilege was dying – while for others, a dream of overthrowing democracy was being born.
With novelistic virtuosity, historian Daniel Schönpflug describes this watershed year as it was experienced on the ground – open ended, unfathomable, its outcome unclear. Told from the vantage points of people, famous and ordinary, good and evil, who lived through the turmoil and combining a multitude of acutely observed details, Schönpflug composes a brilliantly conceived panorama of a world suspended between enthusiasm and disappointment, and of a moment in which the window of opportunity was suddenly open, only to quickly close shut once again.

Americas

Metropolitan Books

Kometenjahre: 1918: Die Welt im Aufbruch

FISCHER, S.

English summary: Marriages between members of the higher nobility in Early Modern Times formed part of a complex socio-cultural practice whose significance for European politics has so far not been the object of academic research. Daniel Schonpflug examines the marriages of the Hohenzollern family to members of the Prussian, Dutch, English-Hanoverian and Russian ruling dynasties between 1648 and 1918 and shows that the 19th century must not be regarded as the 'Age of Revolutions' but as the 'Age of Monarchy'. German description: Furstenheiraten stellten in der Fruhen Neuzeit eine komplexe sozio-kulturelle Praxis dar, deren Bedeutung fur die europaische Politik bislang noch nicht zum Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Untersuchung geworden ist. Heiraten waren ein zentraler Faktor der Aussenpolitik, die auf die raumlich-territoriale Gestalt Europas tief greifende Auswirkungen hatten. Doch auch wenn sich das aussenpolitische System in der Sattelzeit grundlegend anderte, spielten Heiraten noch im 19. Jahrhundert eine wichtige Rolle fur die ritualisierte, personalisierte, emotionalisierte und dadurch besonders breitenwirksame Inszenierung politischer Beziehungen. Daniel Schonpflug untersucht die Vermahlungen der Hohenzollern mit den preussischen, niederlandischen, englisch-hannoverschen und russischen Herrscherdynastien zwischen 1648 und 1918 und zeigt, dass das 19. Jahrhundert nicht als Zeitalter der Revolutionen, sondern als Zeitalter der Monarchien betrachtet werden muss.

Die Heiraten der Hohenzollern (Kritische Studien Zur Geschichtswissenschaft, 207) (German Edition)

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Gmbh & Co

L'anno delle comete. 1918, il mondo in trasformazione

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Books by Schönpflug, Daniel