As I have previously
argued, World war I, not World war II, is the formative event of our era. Its effects, which include the Second World War are still being played out in Russia, the Balkans and the Middle East.
One of the most famous works on World War I is
Barbara Tuchman's Pulitzer Prize-winning book
The Guns of August. This work deals with the circumstances and events leading up to the outbreak of the First World War and the stalemate along the Western Front that ensured a war of attrition settled only by the historically contingent and by no means inevitable intervention of the U.S. in 1917.
Tuchman's book is excellent not only as history, but also as analysis and even as drama. Not a work of art, its artistic touches include grand aphoristic language and a sense of suspense that reads as much like narrative fiction as it does a clinical account.
Neither the actual outbreak nor the course of the war was predetermined. Even up to mobilization the war could have been averted, although, Tuchman argues, the principles often did not see this. Although the reader knows the outcome, through the first half of the book one is kept turning the pages, hoping that war will be avoided. As diplomats and European royalty work sometimes diligently and sometimes fecklessly to achieve some accomodation, others argue that once the wheels are in motion it would be suicide to attempt a delay of action. The Kaiser is shown as too week to avoid a war (one that he both feared and longed for) as well as too conflicted to win it. The effect of Bristish diplomacy was to support France well enough morally that she would not seriously seek to avoid war with Prussia, but not well enough materially to break the German lines once that war broke out. "No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision," says Tuchman.
One particularly tragic event that Tuchman documents is the bombardment of the Belgian city of Louvain and the destruction of its university library, the oldest in Europe, with the loss of countless unique treasures. Cardinal Désiré Mercier, author of the
Manual of Modern Scholastic Philosophy would arise as a hero of the Belgian resistance and of civilzed Europe.
This best-seller has been in print continuously since its publication in 1962. Tuchman's interpretation has influenced historians and the work played a pivotal role in the Kennedy Administration's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Read it as drama, as history, and as a book of ideas.
Pictured are the iconic "you country needs you" poster with
Lord Kitchener, killed in WWI, The Kaiser in his warlord costume and the ruins of the library of Louvain University.
Born in Toulouse, France, in 1882, Edmund Dulac was a prolific illustrator in the Art Nouveau style. He drew hundreds of illustrations for delux edition storybooks. During WWI he illustrated relief books to support the French and Belgian causes. After the war and a change in publishing away from expensive editions he designed stamps and currency, did portraiture and commercial design and even some set design for Orson Welles' Mercury Theater.
Dulac originally studied law, which he found boring. His dramatic artwork is anything but boring. His use of complex natural, especially floral designs is typical of the Art Nouveau style. Today we would recognize the fractal complexity of such patterns. Typical motifs were nature scenes from fairy tales or the beautiful garden scene for the poetry of Omar Khayyam. 
His use of vivid color and dramatic themes and dynamic compositions is stylistically romantic. But he avoids contemporary imagery. He draws no battles, no buildings, no modern achievements. His romance is of a different world or a distant age. Yet it is the romance of human drama - not the folksy corniness of Norman Rockwell nor the landscapes of Maxfield Parrish. His work compares favorably with that of Louis Comfort Tiffany for its luminance and that of René Lalique for its grace.
You can see many of Dulac's prints for sale on line. Artsy Craftsy has some very nice images. There is an article on Dulac at Wikipedia. They also have a gallery of some of his works, but the colors are washed out, so if you like the image you would do well to find a better reproduction of it with a web search. You can also use your browser to view the images here in full size.
While Americans tend to see WWII as the seminal event of the last century, in actuality, it is merely one of the many events set in motion by the true great tragedy of our age, the Great War.
