Bunny Boo's Blog

I’ve been reading about World War I recently, mostly in context of how it affected and was affected by the “Spanish” Influenza epidemic. It’s fascinating stuff. I just finished reading The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry. I’d highly recommend it! It’s a great account of the science, politics, and military maneuvering behind the rise and fall of the “Spanish flu” (which likely started in the United States—Spain was just the first to report on it because of the media censorship surrounding World War I). It’s a lengthy read but I was absolutely hooked.

Anyways, what I know about World War I can be summed up in a ten-point list:

1.       It happened in the 1910s.

2.       It was between “us” and Germany. (I learned from The Great Influenza that President Wilson was actually very reluctant to enter the war!)

3.       A lot of people died, so many that the global population was irrevocably changed.

4.       Most of the combatants died from disease. (Actually, this was only sort of true. According to The Great Influenza, actual combat just barely won if you discount certain factors.)

5.       It was pointless, cruel, and bloody.

6.       C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien both fought in the war, which may have had some influence on their later works.

7.       The surrender conditions the Allies imposed on Germany encouraged the rise of nationalism and eventually the Third Reich.

8.       Poison gas. Lots of poison gas.

9.       It was the last major war to have people fight on horseback.

10.   It had something to do with the assassination of Archbishop duke (!) Ferdinand.

I’d say that this is pretty much layman’s knowledge, considering that most American history classes tend to focus on the two “big” wars sandwiching this period—the Civil War and World War II. I’m coming at this sort of blind, and I’m eager to learn more. I’ve started Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour by Joseph P. Persico. It specifically focuses on Armistice Day and the futility of men dying in combat when the end of the war had already been agreed upon. There’s a quote I’d like to share that will color my perception going forward—“All the scholars on Earth cannot explain the war much better, as it dragged on, than the British Tommies’ ditty ‘We’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here.’”