Sure wish there was some peace in THESE trenches.

I am not well versed in WW I. I am a child of a veteran of the Second World War. As a human being, I am aware of the burden that is implied on the sagacity of the human race that we have to name anything such as a war to be a 'world' war, but growing up I developed the opinion that the second of something was supposed to be a bigger and better version of the first, such as predicted by Gershwin's lampooning lyrics of 1927:

"We're in a bigger, better war
For your patriotic pastime.
We don't know what we're fighting for--
But we didn't know the last time!"

These lines, from Gershwin's original version of "Strike Up the Band" reflect a view that probably couldn't be reciprocated by Europe in the wake of the incredible losses on the many fronts of 1914-1918.

In my young ignorance I figured that World War I was a mere precursor with few lessons to offer, but the PBS series about The Great War set me straight in many ways:

The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century
I've linked to the historian page.

This series linked the events of the war to the politics and technologies of the times. They illustrated how the political lay of the land shifted radically and in unforeseen ways. One of the quotes from it was that if a man were to awake from a hibernation of four years to be told that the monarchies of Russia, Germany, and Austria Hungary were no more, the Ottoman Empire was finished, and millions from all parts of the world had perished, he would scarce be able to believe it.

As for Gershwin, he would not live to witness the truly bigger war, in 1940, but the words of "Strike up the Band" would be changed:


"We hope there'll be no other war
But if we are forced into one--
The flag that we'll be fighting for
Is the Red and White and Blue one!"