1913 - Softcover

Emmerson, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1610393805 ISBN 13: 9781610393805

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2014

Synopsis

A revelatory history of the world in 1913 brings to life an era much more complex, diverse, and interdependent than we've assumed, and challenges current assumptions about globalization, conflict, and change

Today, 1913 is inevitably viewed through the lens of 1914: as the last year before a war that would shatter the global economic order and tear Europe apart, undermining its global pre-eminence. Our perspectives narrowed by hindsight, the world of that year is reduced to its most frivolous features-last summers in grand aristocratic residences-or its most destructive ones: the unresolved rivalries of the great European powers, the fear of revolution, violence in the Balkans.

In this illuminating history, Charles Emmerson liberates the world of 1913 from this "prelude to war" narrative, and explores it as it was, in all its richness and complexity. Traveling from Europe's capitals, then at the height of their global reach, to the emerging metropolises of Canada and the United States, the imperial cities of Asia and Africa, and the boomtowns of Australia and South America, he provides a panoramic view of a world crackling with possibilities, its future still undecided, its outlook still open.

Full of fascinating characters, stories, and insights, 1913: In Search of the World before the Great War brings a lost world vividly back to life, with provocative implications for how we understand our past and how we think about our future.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Emmerson is a Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House working on resource security, foreign policy, and global geopolitics. He is the author of The Future History of the Arctic and 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War. He was formerly a writer for the Financial Times and continues to publish regularly on international affairs. He lives in London, England.

Review:

"Emmerson draws upon an impressive range of contemporary source material, ranging from travel guides and memoirs to unpublished diaries, newspaper reports and diplomatic memos. They give a vivid portrait of the rapid changes occurring in daily life around the globe. Charles Emmerson captures all the world's hope and excitement as it experienced an economic El Dorado. 1913 is history without hindsight at its best."―Wall Street Journal

"In each city the author vividly surveys the political, economic and cultural scenes. The effect is transporting; 1913 is both passport and time machine. The centenary of the Great War will no doubt see the publication of many fine histories of the conflict, but few are likely to paint so alluring a portrait of the world that was consumed by it-and that helped bring it about."―Washington Post

"With the looming 100th anniversary of World War I, a spate of books about the not-so-Great War have begun to emerge. Emmerson's effort stands out for several reasons. First, Emmerson ranges widely, from Germany to Paris, from Bombay to Tokyo. Second, he is a sparkling writer, his narrative rarely flags and he has amassed a startling amount of detail."―Daily Beast

"[Emmerson] aims not to explain what caused or was lost to the war, but to retrieve from the partial glare of hindsight the world in which it erupted. This is no modest undertaking. Mr. Emmerson draws from a wide range of sources, including memoirs, billboards and newspapers, to recreate a year that was fairly uneventful. Not unlike Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time," the first instalments of which were published in 1913, his narrative finds coherence in the unremarkable. [W]hat emerges is a rich portrait and an important set of ideas."―The Economist

"Emmerson offers an impressive sweep that marshals much detail along the way, though at times there is a sense of being on a historical package tour (Baedeker is, indeed, a frequently cited source) in which some city breaks are better rendered than others. But there are some gems. In the patchwork Austro-Hungarian empire, one could drive on both sides of the road and there were 10 official languages but no translators in parliament. Does anyone wonder that it fell apart?"―Financial Times

"Marvelous. Emmerson, a scholar at Chatham House, a renowned London think tank, brilliantly avoids the inevitability trap in 1913. His panoramic depiction of the last year before the Great War permits us to see the world as it might have looked through contemporary eyes, in its full colour and complexity, with a sense of the future's openness. Emmerson is a superb guide and companion, whether inviting us to take a seat next to him in a favourite corner of a Viennese cafe or to survey tout Paris from the Eiffel Tower. In many ways, his book works as a time-travelogue--indeed, it frequently quotes contemporary tourist literature and travelers' accounts."―Cleveland Plain Dealer

"An eye-opening demonstration of just how modern the supposedly premodern world was."―Maclean's

"The book reveals a world both different from today's world, yet still familiar in many ways. It captures the year of 1913 in a way that is fascinating and revealing."―Galveston Daily News

"Portraying the European capitals of the next year's belligerent countries, Emmerson strikes a cosmopolitan tone by noting social interconnections linking London to Paris to Berlin to Constantinople. Including stops in Tehran, Mexico City, Jerusalem, several U.S. cities, Shanghai, and Tokyo, Emmerson's historical world tour emotively captures the civilization soon to vanish in WWI."―Booklist

"Emmerson's project would not be as compelling if he had simply focused on Europe, or on England and her colonies. The Great War was truly a global war, and the world of 1913 was truly a global society. In his book, Emmerson gives fair weight to societies around the world rather than presenting the year from a Eurocentric point of view."―Christian Science Monitor

About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1610393805
• ISBN 13: 9781610393805
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544