Abstract
In 1917, the French-German poet Ivan Goll published a powerful piece entitled ‘Requiem for the Dead of Europe’, which spoke despairingly about the war then raging for three years. The conflict’s devastation was inescapable, affecting neutrals and belligerents alike. Taking as its starting point the congruence of global events in 1917, Maartje Abbenhuis’s introduction argues that this singular year was pivotal in shaping people’s expectations about the post-war future. The year 1917 collapsed the nineteenth-century world order and brought into being the twentieth century. By bringing together the contributions in the collection and focusing on the themes of commemoration, war culture, the mobilisation of societies and the military history of 1917, Abbenhuis asks: what were the legacies of this year of war and revolution?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Yvan Goll, Requiem für die Gefallenen von Europa (Zürich: Rascher, 1917). Translation used here by PoetryHunter.com, accessed September 2017, https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/requiem-for-the-dead-of-europe/.
- 2.
Romain Rolland, Above the Battle (Chicago: Open Court, 1916).
- 3.
Andreas Kramer, ‘Europa minor. Yvan and Claire Goll’s Europe,’ in Europa! Europa? The Avant-Garde, Modernism, and the Fate of a Continent, eds. Sacha Bru et al. (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009), 126–37.
- 4.
Louis Couperus, Brieven van een Nutteloozen Toeschouwer (Amsterdam: Veen, 1918).
- 5.
Goll, Requiem.
- 6.
Jean-Yves Le Naour, 1917: La Paix Impossible (Paris: Perrin, 2011).
- 7.
Goll, Requiem, 38.
- 8.
Cf Peter Jackson, Beyond the Balance of Power: France and the Politics of National Security in the Era of the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 83.
- 9.
Cf William Mulligan, The Great War for Peace (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2014).
- 10.
For a recent reflection on the importance of 1917 to the United States: Beyond 1917: The United States and the Global Legacies of the Great War, eds. Thomas W. Zeiler, David E. Ekbladh, and Benjamin C. Montoya (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
- 11.
Akira Iriye, ‘The Historiographic Impact of the Great War,’ in Beyond 1917, 34.
- 12.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism: A Popular Outline, Second edition (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1934).
Bibliography
Couperus, Louis. Brieven van een Nutteloozen Toeschouwer. Amsterdam: Veen, 1918.
Goll, Yvan. Requiem für die Gefallenen von Europa. Zürich: Rascher, 1917.
Iriye, Akira. ‘The Historiographic Impact of the Great War.’ In Beyond 1917: The United States and the Global Legacies of the Great War, edited by Thomas W. Zeiler, David E. Ekbladh, Benjamin C. Montoya, 23–35. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Jackson, Peter. Beyond the Balance of Power: France and the Politics of National Security in the Era of the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Kramer, Andreas. ‘Europa minor: Yvan and Claire Goll’s Europe’. In Europa! Europa? The Avant-Garde, Modernism, and the Fate of a Continent, edited by Sacha Bru, Jan Baetens, Benedikt Hjartarson, Peter Nicholls, Tania Ørum, Hubert van den Berg, 126–37. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009.
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich. Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism: A Popular Outline. Second edition. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1934.
Mulligan, William. The Great War for Peace. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
Naour, Jean-Yves Le. 1917: La Paix Impossible. Paris: Perrin, 2011.
Rolland, Romain. Above the Battle. Chicago: Open Court, 1916.
Zeiler, Thomas W., David E. Ekbladh, and Benjamin C. Montoya, eds. Beyond 1917: The United States and the Global Legacies of the Great War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Abbenhuis, M. (2018). Introduction: Death’s Carnival: The Myriad Legacies of 1917. In: Abbenhuis, M., Atkinson, N., Baird, K., Romano, G. (eds) The Myriad Legacies of 1917. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73685-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73685-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73684-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73685-3
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)