![]() ![]() "The tremendous toll brought to an end forever the period of Victorian optimism," Hochschild said. It destroyed empires – the czar's, the Ottoman, the German, and the Austro-Hungarian. ![]() It left destruction never before seen on the continent as retreating armies poisoned wells, cut down fruit trees and destroyed forests, intent on causing lasting damage. Military and civilian deaths, direct and indirect, totaled 20 million – six times the death toll of any previous war in Europe. The scale of the war and its effects were of a different degree of magnitude to any other. "There was conflict between people on both sides who thought it was a noble and necessary crusade and those who thought it was complete madness to fight," Hochschild said. 26 at an event hosted by the Rectorate and the Department of International Relations. The First World War, a tragedy that "remade the world we live in for the worse in every conceivable way," was more than a battle between rival alliances – there were dissenters and families divided by conflicting loyalties, according to Adam Hochschild, who tells their stories in his most recent book, "To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918." Hochschild, who is also a lecturer at the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, spoke at CEU Nov. ![]()
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