And beneath the surface turmoil, the war set in motion a deeper and more lasting shift, a transformation that continues to shape the present day: 1916 was the year when world affairs began to revolve around the United States.Īmerica was both a uniquely powerful global force: a force that was forward-looking, the focus of hope, money and ideas, and at the same time elusive, unpredictable and in fundamental respects unwilling to confront these unwished for responsibilities. Strikes, street-fighting and revolution convulsed much of the world. Empires that had lasted since the Middle Ages collapsed into ruins. The war shook the foundations of political and economic order across Eurasia. As the cataclysmic battles continued, a new global order was being born.Īdam Tooze's panoramic new book tells a radical, new story of the struggle for global mastery from the battles of the Western Front in 1916 to the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the depths of the Great War, with millions of dead and no imaginable end to the conflict, societies around the world began to buckle. On the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, Deluge is a powerful explanation of why the war's legacy continues to shape our world - from Adam Tooze, the Wolfson Prize-winning author of The Wages of Destruction WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES PRIZE FOR HISTORYįINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014

The deluge the great war