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Originally Posted by Janszoon
I'm pretty interested in WWI. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that I never learned much about it in history class growing up. It seems like all it ever got was a cursory mention before we'd move on to WWII. To this day I feel undereducated about it.
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This is why I asked in the "What are you reading?" thread. I picked up "The Proud Tower" to educate myself further. All I really ever knew for certain was Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand's attempted assassination sparked it.
The thing about WWI is that it pitches the global currents for the entirety of the 20th century. Why was Germany, which is today considered a Western Nation today, linked with Western Opposition? How did the Middle Eat tie in with all of these countries we always hear about?
As an American, its an odd thing to talk about because the war was 50/50 in favorability then, and doesn't have a unifying force today either. Hitler was something we could rally against, and still use as a guidepost to determine why we don't like centralized power. WWI, though setting the course for everything relating to world events, diplomacy, future wars, and fueding factions within countries for the next 94 years.