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173 World War 1 Essay Topics & Examples

If you’re looking for interesting World War I topics, you’re in the right place! StudyCorgi has plenty of WW1 topics to write about. Below is an extensive list of ideas for an essay, thesis, or research paper. Besides WWI research topics and questions, you’ll find free WW1 essay examples. Read them to get inspiration for your work.

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• Consequences of World War I and World War II
• World War II Was a Continuation of World War I
• Renaissance Development and Crisis of the World War I
• Nationalism as a Cause of World War I
• Impacts on Women’s Role After World War I
• Aspects of World War I in Harvey Dunn’s “On the Wire”
• World War I: History and Causes
• Pan-Slavism and Nationalism as Causes of World War I Both nationalism and imperialism were major forces that drove the alliances toward World War I. The Pan-Slavic movement was not created by Russia to achieve its political goals.
• World War I vs. World War II Differences The paper states that there is often a discourse among military historians that the First and Second World Wars are one event or two different ones.
• Trench Warfare During World War I Trench warfare during World War I was characterized by the broad use of occupied lines consisting of trenches guaranteeing better protection to troops.
• History of Aviation in World War I and World War II Aviation history has various periods that crafted its unique story. It began before the seventeenth century and is known for several momentous events that led to its development, such as World War I and World War II.
• World War I: Nationalism, Imperialism, Militarism This paper analyzes how nationalism, imperialism, and militarism irrevocably led to World War I, and how the alliance system contributed to the ultimate outbreak of war.
• World War I as a Total War World War I was a conflict the nations had never seen before. Over thirty countries lost millions of lives between 1914 and 1918, fighting for their ideals and principles.
• Causes and Consequences of World War I The WW I is considered one of the most devastating and horrible military conflicts in the history of humanity, which resulted in the creation of the new world order and the collapse of numerous states.
• How War Trauma Evolved During World War I This paper is an annotated bibliography that aims to find out how war trauma evolved from clinical and scientific perspectives during World War I.
• America After World War I: A Melting Pot or a Salad Bowl The United States immigration situation after World War I is an ideal example of a salad bowl theory in action.
• American World War I Propaganda The U.S.A. produced the greatest number of propaganda materials in relation to any other single nation participating in the war.
• World War I: Prerequisites and Consequences World War I is an example of how political ideologies and movements can influence the course of history and people’s perception of current events.
• The United States’ Role in the World War I The U.S. managed to maintain neutrality for an impressive amount of time, yet even the American government had to define its position toward WWI at some point.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder During and After World War I The paper examines the causes and manifestations of PTSD during and after World War I, despite the absence of this term at that time, and how diagnosis and treatment are made.
• World War I Reflected in Literature and Art The romantic spirit during the early days of World War I eventually transformed into the personal tragedies of numerous people, which has been reflected in the works of poets.
• Conscription in Canada During World War I In Canada, Conscription during World War I was a total failure as it left the nation more divided than it was before.
• Modernization in Post World War I Turkey and Iran After World War I, the important and contradictory process of modernization of Middle Eastern countries could be observed. The prominent examples are Iran and Turkey.
• Pan-Slavism in Fueling World War I The role of Pan-Slavism in fueling WWI has often been put in the center of discussions about this historic event.
• How Woodrow Wilson Led the US to Involvement in World War I President Woodrow Wilson combined legalism, moralism, and idealism to argue for the United States’ entry into World War I.
• Events in the Balkans in Bringing About World War I The Balkan Wars began as a result of the unrest in Macedonia, which caused upheaval in Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria.
• The Major Alliances of World War I World War I became an arena of the bloody confrontation between two major “armed camps” of the era — the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente.
• How WWI Changed Women’s Role in America The Great War initiated changes in the societal roles of American women. This was contributed by the contributions that they made during the war.
• Keiser’s Abdication During World War I After realizing that Germany would lose World War 1 on November 9, 1918, Keiser Wilhelm 11 was abdicated as the British Emperor and King of Prussia.
• What Was the Most Significant Reason to the Outbreak of World War 1
• Factors That Made the United States Join the Alliances in World War 1
• How Did the Development of Technology Affect World War 1
• What Expectation Did British Soldiers and Civilians Have of Their Government Following WWI
• The American Home Front During World War 1
• Traditions and Encounters: World War 1
• Fertility Shocks and Equilibrium Marriage-Rate Dynamics: Lessons From World War 1 in France
• Analyzing Propaganda During World War 1
• Good Cynicism and Bitterness From World War 1
• What Was Trench Warfare and What Was Its Impact in World War 1
• How Did the Interdependency of the Alliance Systems Help Lead To the Outbreak of WW1
• The Long Term and Short Term Causes of WW1 and How Each Player Became Involved in the Great War
• How Womens Lives Were Affected by World War 1
• How Did Imperialism Cause World War 1
• How the European Alliance Helped Cause World War 1
• The Impact World War 1 Had on Russia
• How Did the Middle East Change as a Result of World War 1
• What Was Life Like in the Trenches During World War 1
• How Did the Outbreak of WWI Contribute to the Genocide of the Armenians
• Why Australians Joined World War 1
• How Germany Was Reborn After the Defeat in World War I There is an ongoing debate in historical scholarship about how quickly Germany managed to become great again after its defeat in World War I.
• Events That Led to the Outbreak of World War I World War I may be regarded as a pivot point in modern history due to its impact on the world. Some events led to the outbreak of World War I.
• World War I and Its Psychological Consequences Different psychological consequences that significantly influenced the nations in World War I included post-traumatic stress disorder, hunger, and grief.
• Participation of Different Nationalities in World War I World War I affected many states, and as the conflict progressed, more countries outside of Europe participated in it, which is why this conflict is a “world war.”
• Stance Against Communist Russia After World War I After World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson took significant steps toward establishing a strict regime of non-acceptance of Soviet ideology and political isolation.
• The Role of Western Power in the Middle East After World War I This paper examines the role of Western influence in the Middle East after World War I and how their presence shaped the region.
• Essentials of Chemical Warfare During World War I Below, the primary aspects of the application of chemical weapons will be presented, making an emphasis on the strategic changes it caused.
• The Late Ottoman Empire and World War I: Annotated Bibliography The study explains how military knowledge was exchanged between the Ottoman Army, Turkish soldiers, and the Germans during World War I.
• Ottoman Empire’s Role in World War I This paper evaluates the late Ottoman Empire and World War I by analyzing how the Ottoman empire lived before the war, and how people were recruited.
• World War I: The Brief Analysis The history of the World War I actually is that of an arms race among the most powerful empires of the early 20th century.
• African-American Experience of World War I and the Harlem Renaissance This article aims to look at the African-American experience throughout World War I and the Harlem Renaissance.
• Globalization After World War I The emergence of the global economy corresponds to the aftermath of World War I, and the battle of governments and markets for control over the field brought unexpected results.
• World War I: Battle of Hill 70 Four months after Vimy Ridge, the Battle of Hill 70 was the first major Canadian battle of the summer and Lieutenant-General Arthur Currie first war in his whole career.
• The Development of Modern America After WWI The development of the automobile industry, the popularity of culture, and the first attempts to maintain international peace boosted the U.S. in a significant way.
• World War I and the Treaty of Versailles At the end of World War I, in the aftermath of the Soviet Union revolution and other developments in Russia, the Treaty of Versailles was adopted in 1918.
• How the Spanish Influenza Was Connected to WWI The Spanish influenza overlapped with the war for approximately nine months and persisted afterwards, with the war playing a major role in its spread and severity.
• World War I and Its Impact on the Life of Europe The Great War affected every aspect of life in Europe. It led to a substantial geopolitical reshuffle, the dissolution of several empires, and the emergence of new nation-states.
• The First World War as a Catalyst of Geopolitical Change The First World War is the prologue to the most significant geopolitical change. As a result of it, the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, and the German Empire collapsed.
• WWI and Territorial Changes in Europe This paper reviews how the Russian, Ottoman, German, and Austria-Hungary empires collapsed during and after WWI and which regions were created from the downfall.
• Analysis of the World War 1 and Cold War The First World War is among significant wars that have occurred in history because it led to the Cold War characterized by persistent strains and conflicts.
• Results of World War I for Germany Having studied Germany’s after-war commitments, one should conclude that they could have been one of the principal causes of World War II.
• The Progressive Era and World War I The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether the decision to enter the war was a failure or success from the point of view of the Progressive Era values and ideas.
• Post-WWI America in “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway The purpose of this paper is to analyze the short story in terms of its plot, characters, setting, and conflict in relation to its overall message and symbolism.
• “Experiences of World War I Soldiers” Lecture by Isherwood This essay discusses the lecture “Experiences of World War I Soldiers” by Ian Isherwood, from his course “Aftermath: The Experience of War and ‘Modern’ Memory.”
• America’s Entry Into World War I The onset of World War I came with repercussions to the United States, which initially planned on avoiding any confrontations.
• Fallouts of World War I World War I brought dramatic changes in all aspects of life. Globally, the political and governmental structure of world countries were changed.
• Causes of World War I Overview The increase of the armaments and military forces by the European countries in the years preceding 1914 was another predecessor of World War I.
• Workers and Immigrants During the World War I and II The consequences of World War I, the restriction of immigration, and the fear of immigrants led to the isolation of the United States during the 1930s.
• Was World War One the Main Cause of the Russian Revolution? This paper will explore the contribution of the First World War to the subsequent revolution that took place in Russia, analyzing whether the war was the main contributing factor.
• Nursing During World War I: The Importance of the Discipline In the USA, the World War I provided an avenue for nursing to discover the importance of professional training and discipline. This war posed a threat to the status of nursing.
• The World War I and the October Revolution Russia’s participation in the First World War added to the misery of the people who not only had to suffer the poverty at home but also had to fight and support an unpopular war.
• World War I (WWI) Effects On American Society WWI brought into America new cultural practices, it became a stimulant for trade, and it also brought into the country a unifying spirit which contributed to the economic success.
• World War 1 Influences Analysis No one state can be charged with causing the world war. It was as a result of economic and political rivalry among nations. There was also the issue of nationalism.
• The Chinese in Canada Before World War I Canada before World War One was characterised by the immigration of foreign communities, especially the Chinese, which resulted in suspicion and fear by locals.
• Employment Opportunities for British Women After World War I Due to the need for Great Britain to unite all of its resources to survive the devastating effect of WWI, the social role and the opportunities for employment changed for women.
• World War I: Wilson Woodrow and League of Nations This is an essay that generally talks about some of the events of World War I, there is a discussion about Wilson Woodrow and his fight for the League of Nations.
• World War I and American Neutrality The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles due to provisions established by Woodrow Wilson regarding collective security and the League of Nations.
• World War I and the United States’ Participation American people will always remember the effects of World War I. It claimed millions of lives and caused the destruction of cultural and architectural masterpieces.
• World War I and the Role of the United States in It When considering the factors that led to the eruption of WWI, one must mention nationalism, imperialism, and militarism.
• The History of Reasons for WWI Outbreak and the United States in WWI On April 6th, 1917, the United States of America decided to enter the First World War after maintaining its neutrality for three years since the conflict’s beginning.
• The World Remade: World War I The World War I became one of the most meaningful events that shaped the history of the humanity and preconditioned the development of the global intercourse in a particular way.
• World War I: Causes and the Entry of the US The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the immediate cause of World War I. But the events that led to the Great War go further back into the nineteenth century.
• World War I: Causes and the United States’ Role This paper aims to investigate the underlying causes of World War I along with the exploration of the role of the United States in the war.
• World War I: Pan-Slavism in German-Speaking States This paper analyzes the role of nationalism, imperialism, and militarism and especially the rise of Pan-Slavism in Eastern Europe in German-speaking states.
• World War I and the US’ Role During and After It This paper is dedicated to revealing the causes of World War I as well as defining the role of the United States during the war and after its end.
• World War I and American Participation This paper analyzes the events that drew the United States into World War I. It clearly discusses why America first remained neutral between 1914-1917.
• Events and Causes of World War I World War 1 took place between 1914 and 1918. A number of authors and scholars have come up with possible causes of the First World War. It took place between rich countries.
• World War One: Fundamental Reasons The paper examines the fundamental reasons that have led to World War One and make an accent on the reasons that drew the United States of America into the world conflict.
• World War I, Its Chronology and Impacts This paper focuses on World War I that was identified as an important mark in the world’s history. It provides a detailed description of the war and explain its impacts.
• WWI and Interwar Military Innovations WWI triggered the development of an array of interwar military innovations. Today specialization is common in contemporary military forces.
• The League of Nations’ Activity After World War I It should be noted that President Roosevelt, although concerned about Germany’s actions, only gave one speech in Chicago, but no action had followed.
• The United States’ Involvement into World War I Historians agree that numerous forces played a role towards initiating this war. This essay gives a detailed analysis of the major causes of the war and its aftermath.
• World War I: Franz Ferdinand’s Death and Alliances The Great War caused the death of at least 8.5 million soldiers and 7 million civilians. The Great War maimed and injured 20 million people.
• World War I: Nationalism and the US Impact In the case of WWI, nationalism led to the development of a competitive worldwide environment where each country felt the urge to overpower its closest rivals.
• Outbreak of World War I The World War I was inevitable as it resulted from the existing differences, leaders` personal ambitions, and the unstable international situation.
• World War I Aftermath for the United States World War I is one of the darkest moments in modern times. It erupted in 1914 with the world’s powerful nations forming opposing alliances.
• World War I and Political World Domination The complexity of the origins of World War I is undeniable, but it is possible to observe that one of the crucial factors was the struggle for domination on the political map.
• World War I Provocative Phenomenas The World War I demonstrated the role of the alliance system, the use of poison gas, and the effect of the genocide on the nations’ development.
• The Reaction of the American Citizens to the US Entry into World War I World War I left a lasting impact on America, influencing the next ten years of American foreign policy and domestic policy.
• Recruitment, Censorship and Propoganda in WW1 in Both Britain and Germany
• Discovering the American Past in World War 1
• Which Was the More Important Cause of World War 1
• The Most Influential Underlying Causes of World War 1
• Canadian History Since World War 1
• Comparison Between World War 1 And World War 2
• Military Leaders World War 1 as Well as After the War
• The Differences Between WWI and WWII
• The Bauhaus Movement During the World War 1
• What Expectation Did British Soldiers and Civilians Have of Their Government Following WWI?
• Causes Effects and Aftermath of World War 1 History
• How America Suffered From World War 1
• Aircraft During World War 1 and World War 2
• Liberal Democracy and Capitalism After World War 1
• Germany Between World War One to World War Two: Culture and Politics
• The Four Main Long-Term Causes of World War 1
• Industrial Revolution and the World War 1
• How Did the Location of Industry Respond to Falling Transport Costs in Britain Before World War 1
• The Fallout After World War 1 and the Great Depression
• The United States’ Entry Into World War 1
• How Did WW1 Lead to the Development of the Medical Field of Plastic Surgery?
• What Did the Intelligence Tradecraft Develop During World War 1?
• Did Britain Want Germany Weak After World War 1?
• Why Did Italy Enter Into World War 1?
• How Did Technological Developments During WW1 Affect the Soldiers Who Fought?
• Was WW1 the Result of Tensions Caused by German Nationalism?
• Should the United States Have Entered World War 1?
• Why Was World War 1 a Total War for Britain?
• What Was the Political Impact of World War 1?
• How Did Modern Weapons Change Combat in the First World War?
• Did WW1 Change the Status of Women?
• Was Germany Responsible for the Outbreak of World War 1?
• What Was the Underlying Cause of World War 1?
• How Did the World War 1 Change British Society?
• Why Did Australia Become Involved in World War 1?
• Should Any One Nation Be Seen as Responsible for the Outbreak of the First World War?
• How Did the First World War Affect Britain?
• What Was the Contribution of Britain to the Defeat of Germany in WW1?
• Did the First World War Liberate British Women?
• Why Did Central Power Lose the World War 1?
• How Did World War 1 Exacerbate Europe’s Economic Problems?
• Was the United States Genuinely Neutral During the First Years of World War 1?
• Did the First World War Represent an Irrevocable Crisis of Gender in the UK?
• How Did World War 1 Influence Modern-Day Art?
• Why Did Aircraft Make Significant Differences in World War 1?
• The role of nationalism in fueling WWI.
• Conditions, strategies, and impact of trench warfare during WWI.
• The significance of new weapons and military technology in WWI.
• The role of propaganda in shaping public opinion during WWI.
• The effects of WW1 on the lives of civilians.
• Immediate and long-term consequences of the Treaty of Versailles.
• The significance of colonial troops in WWI.
• Artistic responses to WWI and its aftermath.
• The impact of WWI on the global balance of powers.
• The progress in medical practices and treatments during WWI.
• Diplomatic failures and tensions that led to WWI.
• The experiences of soldiers in the trenches.
• Women’s non-combat roles during WW1.
• The role of espionage and intelligence in WW1.
• Religious institutions’ responses to WWI.
• The involvement of non-European countries in WW1.
• Aerial warfare strategies in WWI.
• The role of war correspondents in reporting on WW1.
• The impact of WW1 on subsequent conflicts and international relations.
• Ways in which WWI is remembered and commemorated in different countries.

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StudyCorgi. (2021, September 9). 173 World War 1 Essay Topics & Examples. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/world-war-1-essay-topics/

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These essay examples and topics on World War 1 were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 20, 2024 .

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History Resources

Historical Context: The Global Effect of World War I

By steven mintz.

A recent list of the hundred most important news stories of the twentieth century ranked the onset of World War I eighth. This is a great error. Just about everything that happened in the remainder of the century was in one way or another a result of World War I, including the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, World War II, the Holocaust, and the development of the atomic bomb. The Great Depression, the Cold War, and the collapse of European colonialism can also be traced, at least indirectly, to the First World War.

World War I killed more people--more than 9 million soldiers, sailors, and flyers and another 5 million civilians--involved more countries--28--and cost more money--$186 billion in direct costs and another $151 billion in indirect costs--than any previous war in history. It was the first war to use airplanes, tanks, long range artillery, submarines, and poison gas. It left at least 7 million men permanently disabled.

World War I probably had more far-reaching consequences than any other proceeding war. Politically, it resulted in the downfall of four monarchies--in Russia in 1917, in Austria-Hungary and Germany in 1918, and in Turkey in 1922. It contributed to the Bolshevik rise to power in Russia in 1917 and the triumph of fascism in Italy in 1922. It ignited colonial revolts in the Middle East and in Southeast Asia.

Economically, the war severely disrupted the European economies and allowed the United States to become the world's leading creditor and industrial power. The war also brought vast social consequences, including the mass murder of Armenians in Turkey and an influenza epidemic that killed over 25 million people worldwide.

Few events better reveal the utter unpredictability of the future. At the dawn of the 20th century, most Europeans looked forward to a future of peace and prosperity. Europe had not fought a major war for 100 years. But a belief in human progress was shattered by World War I, a war few wanted or expected. At any point during the five weeks leading up to the outbreak of fighting the conflict might have been averted. World War I was a product of miscalculation, misunderstanding, and miscommunication.

No one expected a war of the magnitude or duration of World War I. At first the armies relied on outdated methods of communication, such as carrier pigeons. The great powers mobilized more than a million horses. But by the time the conflict was over, tanks, submarines, airplane-dropped bombs, machine guns, and poison gas had transformed the nature of modern warfare. In 1918, the Germans fired shells containing both tear gas and lethal chlorine. The tear gas forced the British to remove their gas masks; the chlorine then scarred their faces and killed them.

In a single day at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, 100,000 British troops plodded across no man's land into steady machine-gun fire from German trenches a few yards away. Some 60,000 were killed or wounded. At the end of the battle, 419,654 British men were killed, missing, or wounded.Four years of war killed a million troops from the British Empire, 1.5 million troops from the Hapsburg Empire, 1.7 million French troops, 1.7 million Russians, and 2 million German troops. The war left a legacy of bitterness that contributed to World War II twenty-one years later.

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World War 1 - Essay Samples And Topic Ideas For Free

World War 1, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict that occurred between 1914 and 1918, chiefly among European powers. Essays on World War 1 might explore the causes of the war, the significant battles, the political dynamics, and the aftermath of the conflict. Discussions could also delve into the technological innovations and tactics employed, the impact of the war on civilian populations, and the cultural and literary responses to the war. Moreover, examining the war’s legacy on international relations, the changing geopolitics, and its role as a precursor to World War 2 can provide a comprehensive exploration of this monumental event in global history. A substantial compilation of free essay instances related to World War 1 you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

How Technology Affected World War 1

In my paper I will be discussing the many inventions, weaponry, tools that were being released during that period of war. Many new weapons were being pushed out and provided for us to use against our enemies. One of the biggest inventions of the early 1900s was the tank, during this time it was a war of trenches filled with machine guns spraying down men before they could even make it past the 'no man's land' the solution to that […]

Causes of World War 1

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the world was seething with an explosive, hair-trigger force waiting to explode. Capitalism was undergoing a transition to imperialism. The world’s territory was divided among the world’s most powerful nations. Colonies were scattered throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The struggle between the new empires and the old ones was getting larger and larger. As new forces began to snatch resources, uneven economic development and inadequate […]

World War I: Deadliest War Ever

World war 1 lasted from august 1918 to November 1918. With this war being the deadliest with over 16 million deaths which was between the allied powers which included Serbia, Britain, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, and the united states versus the central powers which included Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the ottoman empire. There were many events that led up to the start of world war 1 such as Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassination which was believed to be […]

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What was the Underlying Cause of World War 1

The Great War, also known as the First World War or World War I, was a geopolitical struggle that emerged in 1914 and lasted for four years. In this essay on the underlying cause of World War 1, we'll look at a few things. This international conflict greatly influenced both the sociopolitical and economic development of most nations in Europe, Israel, Russia, the United States, and the Middle East. Notably, the war eroded the central powers in Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and […]

History of the World War 1

The First World War brought along a series of changes compared to the nineteenth century and peoples previous way of living. In America when the war broke out, housework was largely still a woman’s job and men worked to support the household. When America declared war in 1917 and a vast majority of men had to go fight in the war, the power shifted over to the women. “Middle class women often said that the war broke down the restrictions […]

Compare and Contrast in WW1 and WW2

The First World War (WWI) was battled from 1914 to 1918 and the Second World War (or WWII) was battled from 1939 to 1945. They were the biggest military conflicts in mankind's set of experiences. The two conflicts included military collusions between various gatherings of nations. While WWI included the coalition framework, WWII included the Axis Powers and the Central Powers. World War 1 began from 1914 to 1918 and it went on for a very long time. World War […]

Propaganda during World War 1

In the age of national socialism, and the rise of Hitler, media and the creation of art was controlled by the government in order to prevent anti-government propaganda from reaching the public sphere. By preventing artists and journalists from having the creative freedom to express their opinions the media became one sided. Everyone was fed the same anti-Semitic, pro hitler, pro-government news so that they would be brainwashed into believing that their government was protecting them and fixing Germany. Propaganda […]

Large-Scale World War 1

World War I started in 1914 and kept going until 1918, The Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire) battled against the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States). Therefore, because of new military advancements and the detestations of channel fighting, World War I saw uncommon dimensions of the massacre. When the war was finished and the Allied Powers guaranteed victory, in excess of 16 million individuals—military and civilian people alike—were dead. […]

Reasons World War i Started

World War One was started because of many reasons, the British were doing everything in their power to make the United States angry. It worked.. The British tried their best to win U.S. support since at the beginning of the war Wilson declared the United States neutral. Many Americans weren't all in, some of them supported one side and the other supported the other side. The British used propaganda, it's information designed to help people create their opinion. Britain cut […]

Car Production during World War 1

This paper is based on two Primary Sources from Chapter 19, “Of Masses and Visions of the Modern, 1910 – 1939”. The first is “Bruce Barton’s Gospel of Mass Production” and the second is “Cult of the Dynamic Leader”. Both of these sources provide information that relates to the period of time covered in this chapter where major changes in both society and politics developed, especially after World War I. One of the major characteristics of the period was the […]

The Spanish Flu during World War 1

 Spain was the first to report the flu in 1918. Symptoms of the flu are like normal flus like fever, aches and feeling nauseous and fatigue. People with the flu first felt chills or Then they began to feel a headache and begin to have pains on their back which then spread to whole body pains causing tenderness in the muscles. Next came vomiting running eyes and a running nose and coughing plus sore throat. People infected then began to […]

Geography of World War i

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During the World War 1, President Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information with an attempt to mobilize the opinion of a diverse American community in support of the nation’s war effort. The Committee used many forms of media from posters to films to deliver messages, inspire, and persuade civilians. Shaping people’s thoughts required a compelling use of persuasion methods. We will analyze three main themes of propaganda: army recruitment, buying war bonds, and uniting a multiethnic society; and […]

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The rise of authoritarian and ultranationalist in 1930s was an accumulation of several factors such as economic collapse, mistreatment of peasant farmers and workers, and the need for raw material. The world’s economy after World War one was severely crippled and damaging as many nation were left with large debts and for some countries, the price for losing the war have further pushed their economy into ruins. After World War one, several countries were experiencing inflation, each to various degree. […]

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Last Sunday marked the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War 1. In remembrance of World War 1, many of the world leaders met in Paris, France, where French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech at the Armistice Day Ceremony. According to the Washington State Post, Macron argued that “The millions of soldiers who died in the Great War fought to defend the universal values of France, and to reject the selfishness of nations only looking after their […]

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World War One began in nineteen fourteen, right after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. The war lasted till nineteen nineteen. During the war many countries decided to work together to try and win the war. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire teamed up against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan, and the United States. The most important cause of World War One was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. In the summer of […]

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As the curtains fell on the 19th century and the world stood at the threshold of a new era, an intricate web of alliances quietly wove itself across the geopolitical stage. This alliance system, conceived as a mechanism to foster stability, paradoxically became the harbinger of one of the most devastating conflicts in human history – World War I. In unraveling the threads of this complex tapestry, it becomes evident that the alliance system was not merely a backdrop to […]

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The commencement of World War I in 1914 was a watershed moment in history, ushering in an age of large-scale industrial warfare. The intricate alliance structure among Europe's leading nations was key to the conflict's intensification. This network of treaties and accords, forged over decades, laid the groundwork for a regional conflict to escalate into a worldwide war. This article investigates the development, nature, and significance of alliances prior to World War I, giving insights into how they led to […]

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How To Write an Essay About World War 1

Introduction to world war 1.

When embarking on an essay about World War 1, it's essential to first establish a clear understanding of the historical context and significance of the war. Known as "The Great War," World War 1 was a pivotal event in world history, marked by its unprecedented scale, the involvement of numerous nations, and the introduction of new warfare technologies. In your introduction, outline the basic timeline of the war, from its origins in 1914 to its conclusion in 1918, and the main countries involved. This initial section should set the stage for a comprehensive exploration of the war's causes, major battles, political dynamics, and its profound impact on the 20th century.

Analyzing the Causes and Key Events

The main body of your essay should delve into the complex causes and key events of World War 1. Explore the intricate web of alliances, militarism, imperialism, and nationalism that set the stage for the war. Discuss critical battles and campaigns, such as the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Verdun, and the Gallipoli Campaign, highlighting their strategic importance and the human cost involved. It's crucial to use specific examples and historical data to illustrate the progression of the war and the shifts in momentum among the warring nations. This section should provide a detailed and nuanced understanding of how World War 1 unfolded and the factors that drove its progression.

The Impact of World War 1

In this section, focus on the wide-ranging impact of World War 1. Analyze the immediate consequences, including the massive loss of life, the physical and psychological toll on soldiers, and the political upheaval in many participating countries. Discuss the broader implications of the war, such as the redrawing of national borders, the dissolution of empires, and the setting of the stage for World War 2. Consider also the social and cultural impacts, including how the war influenced art, literature, and public attitudes towards war and peace. This part of the essay should highlight the transformative effect World War 1 had on the world.

Concluding Reflections on World War 1

Conclude your essay by summarizing the key points of your analysis, emphasizing the historical significance of World War 1. Reflect on the lessons learned from the war and its relevance to modern society. Consider how understanding the complexities of World War 1 can provide insights into current global conflicts and international relations. A well-crafted conclusion will not only bring closure to your essay but also underscore the enduring legacy of World War 1 in shaping the contemporary world.

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World History I - World War I: Creating a Research Question

• Imperialism and Causes of WW1
• Outcomes of WW1
• Creating a Research Question
• Search Strategies
• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• MLA Citations

Presentation

"If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use the first 55 minutes determining the proper questions to ask. For once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than 5 minutes.

-Albert Einstein

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Research Starters

• Research Paper Topics - enotes
• Possible Research Topics
• 598 Possible Topics
• Ideas for Research Questions
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Paper Topics

Qualities of a Good Research Question

1. Interesting to YOU!

2. Focused and manageable within the time/word limit

3. Offers something new (NOT descriptive or overdone)

4. Has context to narrow the topic (includes person, place, or time in history)

Strategies for defining a topic

Sometimes it can be overwhelming to come up with a topic and research question on your own. here are some tips to help:.

1. Develop a tentative focus. List what you know and want to know about a particular topic. Look at the questions that are most interesting to you.

2. Find background information on your topic. Read encyclopedias to get a general sense of your topic. As you read, you will learn more about your topic and you may come across a more specific focus you're interested in knowing more about.

3. Read magazine and newspapers. The articles are short and concise and can provide a general idea of key issues or controversies related to your topic.

4. Check out our Points of View Database. It lists a ton of controversial issues and provides reliable background information which might inspire you to learn more.

5. Read your textbooks. What have you learned in other classes that you'd like to know more about?

6. What's happening in your life? Where do you want to go to school? What job are you interested in? Where would you like to travel? Choose a topic that will apply to your life.

Written with material from the University of Illinois Libguides.

Add context to your question

War as a topic is too huge. So add some context to make it more narrow:

-Place/Event

What was the significance of the Battle of the Bulge in the outcome of WWII?

Break it Down

Bloom's taxonomy.

The bottom of this inverted triangle (Remembering) represents the lowest level of critical thinking and the least interesting or challenging research topics. Aim for the top of the pyramid (Creating, Evaluating, and Analyzing). Try to develop a question which requires you to design, defend, compare/contrast, etc....

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The Causes and Effects of World War I Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
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Introduction

The effects of World War I can be seen around the world even now, more than one hundred years after its end; however, there is still no consensus as to its cause. In the words of Alfred Korzybski, “the destruction was brought about by nationalism, entangled alliances, narrow ethnic concerns, and desires for political gain – forces that are still with people today.” (cited in Levinson, 2014). Even though the majority of United States citizens did not have the direct experience of the terrific upset that the war caused in Europe, it can be argued that the country’s concern with championing democracy around the globe is one of its products (Levinson, 2014).

Many historians agree that an atmosphere of twentieth-century Europe was conducive to the creation of a complex mixture of economic, social, and political reasons that translated into powerful forces of imperialistic, nationalistic, and militaristic movements leading to the diplomatic crises of 1914 (Donaldson, 2014). Therefore, it can be said that the blame for the war could not be assigned to any individual country or a group of countries.

Nonetheless, the issue of responsibility was the main focus of the world in the years following the Armistice of 1918 (Donaldson, 2014). To this end, the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and the Enforcement of Penalties met in Paris in 1919 (Donaldson, 2014). The investigation conducted by the commission showed that Germany and Austria, along with Turkey and Bulgaria as their allies, were responsible for the aggressive foreign policy tactics that led to the precipitation of the war (Donaldson, 2014).

The start of World War I was precipitated by the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, on June 28, 1914 (Mulligan, 2010) The elimination of the high-standing official was carried out by the group of secret society members called Black Hand and directed by Bosnian Serb Danilo Ilić (Storey, 2009). The political objective of the murder was to separate Austria-Hungary’s South Slav provinces to combine them into Yugoslavia (Storey, 2009).

In response to the killing of their official, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia that commanded its government to prosecute the assassins. The objective of the ultimatum was to make its terms so strict that Serbia would be forced to reject it, thereby giving an excuse for launching a small war against it (Storey, 2009). Taking into consideration that Serbia had diplomatic relationships with Russia strengthened by their shared Slavic ties, the Austro-Hungarian government decided to take precautions against the two countries declaring war on it and allied with Germany. It is agreed that Germany was not opposed to Austro-Hungarian bellicosity, but rather supported and encouraged it, thus providing one more reason for the precipitation of the Great War (Levinson, 2014).

Even though Serbia’s response to the ultimatum was placating, Austria-Hungary decided to take aggressive action and declare war. It is argued that the main reason for World War I was the web of entangling alliances among the countries having an interest in the conflict between Austro-Hungary and Serbia (Storey, 2009). Following the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war, the Russian monarch mobilized his army because of the binding commitment of the treaty signed by the two countries.

As a result, on August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on the Russian Empire (Levinson, 2014). France was bound by treaty to Russia, and, therefore, had to start a war on Austria-Hungary and Germany. Even though a treaty tying France and Britain was loosely worded, the latter country had “a moral obligation” to defend the former (Levinson, 2014). Therefore, Britain and its allies Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Japan, and the Union of South Africa also took a bellicose stance against Germany and offered their assistance in the military action against the country (Levinson, 2014). Thus, a gigantic web of entangling alliances pushed numerous countries to the precipice of war over what was intended to be a small-scale conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

Numerous other reasons led to World War I. The conflicting political interests of Russia and Japan over Manchuria and Korea resulted in a military defeat of Russia (Levinson, 2014). Therefore, the country wanted to restore its dignity by a victorious war. During the same period, a lot of small nations were seething with discontent over the Turkish and Austro-Hungarian rule, thereby providing an opportunity for the Russian Empire further to stir resentment by firing up nationalistic zeal under a pretense of pan-Slavic narrative (Levinson, 2014).

Austria-Hungary, on the other hand, sought an opportunity to establish its influence over a vast territory of mixed nations; the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne provided them with a perfect excuse for the initiation of the war. Political clashes in Germany were a reason for the country’s government to resort to the military conflict as a way of “averting civil unrest” (Levinson, 2014). Another factor that caused World War I was the desire of France to revenge a military defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 (Levinson, 2014).

It is impossible to name a single reason for the initiation of World War I. However, it is clear that the entangling web of alliances among numerous parties participating in the war, as well as complicated plots of governments and empires, led the small-scale dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia escalating into a military conflict that swept the entire world.

Donaldson, P. (2014). Interpreting the origins of the First World War. Teaching History , 155 (4), 32-33.

Levinson, M. (2014). Ten cautionary GS lessons from World War I. Et Cetera, 71 (1), 41-48.

Mulligan, W. (2010). The origins of the First World War . Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Storey, W. (2009). The First World War . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

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IvyPanda. (2020, October 9). The Causes and Effects of World War I. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effects-of-world-war-i/

"The Causes and Effects of World War I." IvyPanda , 9 Oct. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effects-of-world-war-i/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'The Causes and Effects of World War I'. 9 October.

IvyPanda . 2020. "The Causes and Effects of World War I." October 9, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effects-of-world-war-i/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Causes and Effects of World War I." October 9, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effects-of-world-war-i/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Causes and Effects of World War I." October 9, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-causes-and-effects-of-world-war-i/.

World War One Essay

Germany was responsible for World War One. To what extent do you agree with this statement? 

Essay by Laura Iafur, 3rd Form

Taking place on 28th July 1914 until 11th November 1918, World War One was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, ending the lives of millions of people. Although no one country deserves more blame than the other countries, many would argue that the country of Serbia, after all, it was a group of Serbian terrorists who killed the hero of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, Franz Ferdinand. This is considered by many, what triggered this war. Others suggest Austria-Hungarian is to blame the most, they wanted war with Serbia even before Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, it seems like the assassination was the opportunity they were waiting for. Some could even say that it was Russia, who was the first to mobilize its troops, creating even more tension in an already unstable Europe. These countries are all guilty for such a violent war, but Germany, being the one that has the blank cheque to Austria-Hungary, is the most responsible of all; without backing up Austria-Hungary, it is improbable that Austria-Hungary would have acted so recklessly.

On 5th July 1914, Germany gave the “blank cheque” of unconditional support to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, fully aware of the consequences it was probably going to bring. At that moment, Germany had the strongest army, with 2,200,000 soldiers and warships, this guaranteed Austria-Hungary that no matter how drastically they acted, they would receive massive support from Germany. If Germany had not given this back up to Austria-Hungary, they most likely would have done something other than declaring war. Germany knew that Russia would most likely help Serbia, which meant that a local war would escalate into a Global war, but they did it anyway.

Germany also dragged Britain into the war when using the Schlieffen plan. On 2nd August, Germany asked for permission for their army to pass through Belgium, to get to France, but they were refused. Sir Edward Grey proposed to Germany that Britain would stay if Germany did not attack France, but the German generals denied this. On 3rd August, Germany violated international treaties by invading Belgium, a neutral country; knowing that Britain was obligated to help Belgium if an invasion occurred. Therefore, Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August 1914.

The enormous increase in tension between these countries was one of the main reasons for this war to start, there are various factors that led to more tension, many in which Germany was involved. One of these factors was the German and British naval race which did not make Britain happy. (“Britannia rules the waves”), and at the end of 1914, Britain was this race.

The Moroccan crisis, 1906, was another factor. The French wanted to conquer Morocco and Britain agreed to help, but in 1905 Kaiser Wilhelm visited Morocco and promised to protect it against anyone who threatened it. The French and British were furious. Germany had to promise to stay out of Morocco, which didn’t make them happy at all. In 1911, there was a revolution in Morocco, the French sent in an army to control it. Kaiser Wilhelm sent a gunboat to the Moroccan part of Agadir; this angered the French and British. Germany was forced to back down, which made them very angry, it increased their resentment. Kaiser Wilhelm was determined to win the next crisis.  All this evidence shows that Germany, at that point was ashamed. They had lost various crisis issues and since they could not allow themselves another defeat. Germany had decided they needed to prove their power, this being the reason they acted in such a careless manner.

Austria-Hungary also deserves part of the blame; they were the ones who declared war first on Serbia on 28th July, 1914. Before 1914, assassinations of royal figures did not usually result in war. However, Austria-Hungary saw the Sarajevo assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife as an opportunity to conquer and destroy Serbia. The Austrian Chief of Staff General Hotzendoz wanted to attack Serbia long before the assassination.

Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia (23rd  July) with ten very exigent requests that needed to be accepted to avoid military conflict. Serbia accepted all requests apart from one, which was to allow Austria-Hungary to enter Serbia and oversee investigation and prosecution on the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Nonetheless, this was not enough for Austria-Hungary, so they declared war, and with Germany’s support, it would’ve provided an easy win.

On the other hand, if Austria-Hungary did not make a move against Serbia, the different nationalities living in the Austria-Hungarian territory could act against their leaders giving the impression to other countries that there won’t have been any consequences. Austria-Hungary could have acted in a different manner on the Serbia war, but it was due to Germany who empowered them to act this way.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was conducted by a Serbian terrorist named Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia, 28th June 1914. This was the spark that caused the war. Gavrilo was a nationalist who wanted Bosnia to be its own country, and when Ferdinand announced his trip to SaraJevo, it was the perfect opportunity to strike against Austria-Hungary. Gavrilo was a member of a terrorist group named, Black Hand. Austria-Hungary suspected the involvement of Serbia in the Bosnian attack, thus representing the final act in a long-standing rivalry between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Russia did not want a war, the Russian Grand Council decided if Serbia was to be invaded, it would have to request a conference to asses the issue. However, Russia had previous issues with Serbia regarding the Bosnian crisis in 1908.

To conclude, World War One was a chain reaction triggered by the assassination Franz Ferdinand; however, Serbia wasn’t mostly responsible but Germany, who pushed Austria-Hungary in making those decisions leading to the global conflict. The alliance system was created to prevent war, but it did the total opposite, where all the countries were forced to join the war.

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Expert opinion: Origins of the First World War

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In 2012, I recorded this audio in which two leading historians of the First World War discuss their subject, and in particular the question of the origins of the war, with me.

Professor John Röhl and Professor Christopher Clark explain the fascination of the topic and give their differing views on why war broke out in 1914.

John Röhl has spent most of his academic career researching the role of German decision-makers, and in particular Kaiser Wilhelm II, in the events that led to the outbreak of war.

Christopher Clark published his acclaimed study The Sleepwalkers in 2012. In it he argues against the idea that we can identify a guilty party. ‘There is no smoking gun’ in the hands of the leaders of one country; rather, they were all responsible for the events that led to war.

Annika Mombauer:

In this audio you will be able to hear two leading historians of the First World War discuss their subject with me, Annika Mombauer. We’ll be hearing from Professor John Röhl and Professor Christopher Clark, who’ll both be able to tell us why this is such a fascinating subject; why this is such a difficult debate; and what the role of evidence – in particular – is in helping historians come to conclusion, quite different conclusions, about the origins of the First World War.

I’ve arrived at John Röhl’s house. Hello John, how lovely to see you (greetings).

Ever since the First World War started, historians have debated why it began; we’re now looking at a hundred year debate; we’re looking at mountains of documents; thousands of books written on the topic; and yet even now historians don’t agree on why war started in 1914. John has worked at the University of Sussex for all his academic life – and why are you so interested in the topic?

My interpretation lies in the foundation of the German Reich back in 1871 and in particular in the extraordinary success of imperial Germany – this huge country in the heart of Europe – from about 1895 onwards, waiting to take over from Britain as the leading world power based in Europe. So in my interpretation the two world wars are linked – in fact they’re essentially about the same thing – they’re about an attempt by Germany to conquer Europe as a prelude to even further global expansion, defeat in 1918 and then a resurgence of nationalism with Hitler’s coming to power in 1933 in particular and then a second even more radical attempt with even more radical methods, to achieve the same goal of domination in Europe. That’s my interpretation.

So you and I both think that Germany was more to blame than anyone else for the outbreak of war but, of course, historiographically, that interpretation has been revisited many times. So we’ve come from 1919 when this was seen as the reason for war to the situation in the 1930s, summed up most famously by Lloyd George, who said that all the nations had slithered into war. It was then nobody’s fault, which was very comforting for Germany. We then get the 1960s with the famous Fischer controversy with renewed focus on Germany’s decision making and pretty much an orthodox view that Germany was more to blame than others. But it seems to me the whole thing is very cyclical and we’ve now got to a point again where we’re almost back to Lloyd George – we’re almost back with some people arguing that there’s no point in playing the blame game; there’s no point really in looking for one country being responsible; and there’s renewed focus as there was in the inter war years on what Russia and France were up to, and to a lesser degree on what Britain was up to. I wonder what your thoughts are on these views, on making Russia more responsible in particular, or making France more responsible. Is that something you can find in any way convincing given the evidence we have?

Well frankly no I don’t find these new approaches helpful at all – I think they just ride rough shod over all the evidence we’ve accumulated. When the German government collapsed in 1918 and the Socialists came to power in Germany, the first thing that happened was that the socialists published the German documents and the story that those documents tell is absolutely clear – it is that there’s a German plot to support Austria in an attack on Serbia, which would hopefully have the effect – because the Balkans are remote from Britain – to keep Britain out of the war, it would have the effect of Germany being able to blame Russia for what was about to happen; that would persuade the German people to support this war, and it would also hopefully persuade Germany’s allies Italy and Romania, who were not so strong in their support, to come in in the war – that’s Bethmann’s calculation.

Can you talk a little bit about what sort of evidence there is to make that point – for example in December 1912, the infamous war council about which you in particular have written a lot. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about why this is an important event?

The war council was a wonderful, exciting discovery back in the 1960s which I picked up because the original document recording it was actually published in a slightly adulterated from and I went back to the original diary entry of one of the people present, an Admiral, and said, hang on, what he actually says is this and not what was published. Again, coming back to the point which I think is so important, that we have to go back to the original documents and not rely on what was printed, by people who were perhaps falsifying the documents for patriotic reasons. And essentially what that document and five others we’ve discovered meantime were describing was a meeting called by the Kaiser on a Sunday morning, 8th December 1912. It was a meeting of him and three or four of his generals and three or four of his admirals. And the important point there was that the Reich chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg was not invited, the foreign secretary was not invited and what were they doing? They were discussing whether to have an immediate war or whether to postpone the war for another year and a half, 18 months until certain things had been put in place. The interesting thing is that when these documents were first discovered and discussed there was great interest, and then interest waned, didn’t it? We’ve had a period of about 25 years now where I virtually alone have been saying, look, this is important, you can’t just ignore it. Let’s try and work out what it’s about. And I’ve actually changed my position in the light of new evidence which has become available – I think now that the German's decision to have an immediate war was actually taken in mid-November 1912, in other words three weeks before this meeting. And what the meeting is really about is the Kaiser getting cold feet because he’s heard from Prince Lichnowsky the German ambassador in London, who’s only just arrived in London, to say, no we’re wrong the British will not stay out of the war, they will definitely come into defend France, to stop France from being crushed. And the Kaiser receives this dispatch on that Sunday morning and says, wait a minute, all our calculations are wrong, we’ve been assuming that if we start a war via an Austrian attack on Serbia, Britain will stay out and we’ll only have France and Russia to deal with but this seems to be wrong so let’s talk about it again. And it’s in the light of that deterrent effect of Lichnowsky’s dispatch that they apparently decide, at this famous war council on 8th December, to postpone war. Now that puts a different slant on things because now you’re not planning to start a war in 18 months’ time; it’s a kind of panicky decision that you’re taking about. You’re on the back foot, you’re saying wait a minute, what we've been talking about is not going to work so let’s think again. So it’s a much more open-ended way of looking at that 18 month interval between this 8th December 1912 meeting and the actual later decision to begin the war, which is in part in response to the assassination in Sarajevo, but what’s interesting is that in that 18 month interval the more they get closer to what they deem to be a good moment to start, the German messages to the Austrians become stronger and stronger and stronger. And then when the assassination comes, that's really it, they say, well this is so good, this is too good to be true.

But at this point a crisis develops that is really not of Germany’s making and is really – in the beginning – Austria’s crisis. And Germany then encourages Austria. Would you say that that’s fair – do we need to look more at Austria in the July crisis than at Germany?

Well certainly we should look at Austria as well as Germany. What is important however is that the Germans had been urging the Austrians on repeated occasions in the last year and a half, but in particular in the last 6 or 9 months, now to seize the moment to attack Serbia, pull it down, and if the Russians were not prepared to back down and allow their client state Serbia to be humiliated, and if it then came to a war on the Continent, then don’t worry, Germany’s behind you. We’re ready and we’ll back you to the hilt. So we had that in 1919-1920 those documents published, then many years later, after Hitler was defeated and Germany was divided, a completely new discovery, something that nobody anticipated, which was the discovery of Germany’s war aims, of the extent of Germany’s war aims during the First World War and – in particular – one document which was chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg’s September programme of 9th September 1914 outlining what Germany was going to demand in the expected victory over France – expected just in a day or two maybe. Now unfortunately for Bethmann-Hollweg, that very day in which he signed this document and sent it off was the very day that the Battle of the Marne began, which of course stopped the German advance into France in its tracks, so Bethmann never actually got to the point where he could impose these terms on a hapless France. But from the document, which is long, which has a preamble, which is four weeks in the making, we have notes in his handwriting going back to the 16th of August 1914, where verbatim some of these demands are formulated. He says very clearly – the general aim of this war for Germany is to secure the safety, the power of Germany, in West and East, for all imaginable time. And then he goes onto spell out the details of how Belgium is going to be divided up including the acquisition of a so-called Mittelafrika, a Central African Empire stretching from the East coast to the West coast and including the whole of the Congo. Now that is a massive blueprint for the domination of Europe and beyond. And this is early in the war, written not by some crazy pan-German, not by some general who’s lost his marbles, but by decent, philosophical, civilian Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg who sends it quite officially to his deputy in Berlin. And ever since we’ve had that document – all sorts of arguments were advanced to try to demean it in some way – oh it’s just a shopping list, he’s just doodling because as a chancellor there’s nothing he can do in war time anyway – that was how it was denigrated. But just as there’s no way back behind the Kautsky documents of 1919, so there’s no way back – in my view – behind the Bethmann-Hollweg’s September programme and all the other things that Fritz Fischer and others have been able to discover.

Well the most recent interpretations on the origins of the war focus on Russia and France in particular and also Serbia’s role has been highlighted – I’m thinking here of Christopher Clark’s book The Sleepwalkers, which has already made quite a splash and he’s looked at a lot of archival evidence to show for example Serbia’s involvement, to prove Serbia’s involvement in the assassination and to highlight the roles played by France and Russia; and Sean McMeekin is another example of somebody who highlights Russia’s culpability in the outbreak of the war. I wonder what your view is on the idea that Europe sleepwalked into war in 1914. That suggests to me that nobody actually wanted it and the war really was an accident.

The First World War for me was an attempt by imperial Germany to dominate Europe by force of arms and yes, of course France and Russia and to some extent Britain had to respond to that but, my God, we’re not talking about an accidental war that in my view could have been stopped again if it had been an accident in two or three weeks’ time. No – the French bled to death in their millions and the British lost also a million young men and their whole wealth in order to stop their subjugation by a militaristic power in the heart of Europe. And you have Germans saying the same thing – you have Albert Ballin, the industrial leader, the head of the Hapag shipping line, virtually in tears saying to the German leaders themselves, how could you do this, we’ve built up Germany’s prosperity over two hundred years and you throw it away with this absolutely stupid, ridiculous attempt to dominate Europe by force of arms when in fact we would have dominated Europe anyway by economic terms and trade terms within 10 or 15 years. You have the foreign secretary, Gottlieb von Jagow, spending a whole night in tears confessing that he’d made a terrible mistake by supporting this policy; you’ve got Prince Lichnowsky, the German ambassador, who’s the only one in the German leadership who knows what’s going on, who actually tries to try to stop this idiocy, as he sees it. He calls his own leaders gangsters for starting this war – I mean the evidence is just so overwhelming now of German intent to start a war which of course went terribly wrong – they didn’t want the war they actually got, they wanted a war of 5 weeks, and then victory over France, plus another 6 or 8 weeks in Russia (a walkover) and then they’d be back in Berlin for Christmas with victory in their hands. That was the plan – it went wrong.

We’ve just heard from John Röhl and now I’m in the studio here in London with Professor Christopher Clark from Cambridge who is equally as fascinated by this long debate on the origins of the First World War, but he takes rather a different angle in approaching the topic. Chris, before we talk about your own interpretation, I just wonder how convincing you find John’s view which I guess I’d summarise as the German paradigm.

Christopher Clark:

I want to make a distinction between the aspects of his argument which I really straight out disagree with and the aspects where I’m looking for a shift in emphasis. I mean John effectively thinks that the Germans planned the war in advance, that they even planned its timing, from December 1912 onwards they were planning to start a European war in the summer of 1914. Now my view is that neither he nor anybody else has ever shown this to be the case and the documents do not support that view, so I strongly disagree with that claim. On the other hand, what John has also done is provided – as indeed have many other scholars including yourself – has provided a lot of detailed source-based information about the extent to which the Germans had included the idea of war in their foreign political calculations, in their strategic calculations – and there he’s scored a lot of points and I don’t so much disagree with John as want to place his findings in a broader European context because I think the Germans are not the only ones who are thinking about the possibility or even the probability and even the desirability of a major war – they’re not the only ones. We find the same thinking in other capital cities as well. The story I would like to tell is about the interaction between five great powers and intermittently also lesser players, in particular the Balkan states; and how these interactions created a climate of distrust (levels of trust were very low even within the European alliances but certainly between them); a high level of aggressivity; the anticipation of feared future aggression; arms races; and how against that background, the interactions between at least five executive decision-making centres in the capital cities of Europe produced and then escalated a Balkan crisis producing the outcome which we call the First World War.

So when we look at evidence of German culpability, the documents that stand out in particular which were first found by Fritz Fischer are those relating to the war council of December 1912 and then those relating to war aims – the famous September programme of 1914 – and I just wonder what your take is on these events and on these documents?

I think some of the most interesting work has focussed on the complexity of Fischer’s motivations. I mean this is a man who had had a very substantial and quite a deep flirtation with National Socialism himself, who felt profoundly unhappy about that, unsettled by it and was determined to dedicate his adult life as an intellectual to decontaminating German history, to overcoming the horrific legacy of Nazi criminality – and that’s where I think the story starts to go awry. I mean the 1912 war council is not a council at which war was planned, or its timing was established, and I’m afraid the most powerful statement about this council is one which was unearthed and published by John Röhl himself, which is Admiral Müller’s recollection, and his diary entry ends the account of the meeting of that day by saying that the result of this meeting was exactly zero – so the war council isn’t a war council and it didn’t have the consequences that had been attributed to it. Now it’s true that John Röhl said that what happens at the war council is that war, having been planned, is now postponed. There is in my view no persuasive evidence of that – the war council is called not in order to postpone a war that the Germans have already planned but rather in response to a note which has reached the Kaiser from the German ambassador in London, Lichnowsky, it looks like the British are preparing a war are we ready for one – that’s what the so-called war council was about. As for the September Programme, that of course loomed very large in Fritz Fischer’s account of the origins of the war. The key problem with the September programme is the word September. The programme was conceived and devised after the war was underway. A cause has to be precedent in time – the war can’t be caused by something that happened after the war broke out. The September programme was formulated to justify the war that was underway in September 1914. All the belligerent states come up with hair-raising war plans once they are at war.

One of the things that’s particularly fascinating about your book is how much of an emphasis you put on the role of Serbia which has not often been done, which is surprising given that it is the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by Bosnian Serbs and the assumption or the allegation that Serbia was behind this assassination that starts off the July crisis. Could you tell us a little bit about what Serbia is like in 1914 and what Serbia’s role is in the background?

First I’d like to start with a negative and say it’s certainly not my intention to blame the Serbs – I mean that would be crazy to do that, to blame this small country for the outbreak of the First World War – but I do think that the instability of the Balkan situation – the rapid expansion of Serbia during the two Balkan wars (1912 and 1913) – these two wars did two things – they greatly strengthened Serbia so Serbia’s size grows very considerably, it’s population grows, Serbia moves into new areas and in particular into Macedonia and so on; but they also completely devastated the traditional geopolitical arrangements on the Balkans, and thereby ruined the security policy of Austria-Hungary, leaving the sort of multi-ethnic empire of Austria-Hungary in an extremely exposed position. So a great deal depended on how Austria would respond to the challenges of this new Balkan situation.

So when we now look at the July Crisis, my opinion is that it’s sort of a crisis of two halves, if you like; the first half, up until the Serbian ultimatum is really very much a crisis that’s shaped by decisions made in Berlin and primarily in Vienna; but that after the ultimatum, everyone obviously is involved in decision-making and they make decisions which will affect the outcome of the crisis. Would you agree with that or do you see that differently?

No I absolutely agree with that – it starts as a crisis generated by this action in Sarajevo entirely being about how the Austrians would respond. But as you say, after the Serbian response to the Ultimatum, and the Austrian declaration of war, it enters into a new geo-political phase and becomes about all the different great powers lining up to make sure they can take advantage and be in the best possible position once a war breaks out – a war that they are all contributing to make very, very probable. Everybody thinks we’re working against the clock, time is running out. The Germans are saying, the more men the Entente get – and bearing in mind they’ve already got a million more soldiers than we have – if we let this situation drift any further, they’ll be able to fight a war with us on terms that they choose and of course this sends ripples of fear and anxiety right through Europe, because of course the French are worried that if the Russians get that powerful that they don’t need us anymore then we’ll really be in trouble, we’ll be on our own, so it’s better to risk a war now whilst the Russians are still weak enough to need us than it is to wait until the future when they can choose their allies as they please.

Now looking at the evidence we have on decision-making, particularly in Berlin and Vienna now, it seems to me that Berlin put a lot of pressure on Vienna at various points during the July Crisis, particularly if you look at the blank cheque – it’s not just a blank cheque saying yes we’ll support you, but it is the case of saying, but you need to do it now – it’s now or never – and there is a fear in Vienna that the ally might abandon them if they don’t appear strong enough. Does that in your opinion constitute to some extent German responsibility for the outbreak of war?

I think that the Germans – in offering the blank cheque in the first place and then in pressing the Austrians to take action – they certainly made their contribution to the escalation of the crisis, there’s no question – and you know it would be crazy to depict the Germans – as German propaganda did in the 1920s and ‘30s – as the innocent lambs in this story; but on the other hand it’s not true, as some scholars have argued including incidentally John Röhl, that the Germans bullied the Austrians into seeking a war against Serbia. The Austrians were grown-ups; they made up their minds about what they wanted to do as soon as the assassinations took place – you can trace this in the Austrian documents – there’s a kind of group think, they say, right this time it’s war, we can’t tolerate any more provocations of this kind from Serbia – we’ve got to take action. And the language of the Austrian appeal to Germany made this absolutely clear – we know what we’re doing, will you back us? However once the Austrians have assured the Germans that that’s what they want to do, and the Germans have assured the Austrians of their support, yes, Berlin then does start worrying about the time that it’s taking – I mean the days pass, and then weeks, and the Germans get more and more anxious about their localisation strategy. They think that the war can only be localised if action is taken quickly so they press very hard on Vienna, they keep on saying, when is something going to happen, what’s up, what’s going on? But I mean it’s not pressuring for war, it’s pressuring to secure a swift action which will enable them to maintain a plausible localisation strategy.

Now we’ve talked a lot about guilt, responsibility, culpability, and that’s essentially what this long debate has always been about – trying to attribute guilt, starting of course in the war itself and then at Versailles, it was very much about war guilt for the obvious reasons of needing someone to shoulder the reparations and being responsible. But how useful do you think it is to talk about war guilt now that we’re a hundred years or more removed from these events – should historians attribute responsibility and guilt?

It seems to me that the problem with the blame-centred approach is not so much that you might end up blaming the wrong party because frankly now a hundred years later, as you say, it doesn’t matter who we blame, politically it doesn’t make any difference. The real danger is that you end up deciding who you think is the culprit – you know bringing in the suspect and then constructing a charge sheet against that suspect in prosecutorial manner which is exactly what Fritz Fischer did. The problem is that that’s such a narrow approach. What we really need to understand is how did this war come about? Once we understand how the war came about, then we can ask questions about why it came about and because of whom; and we need to ask how first and allow the why and who questions to arise out of the how answers, rather than the other way around.

Thank you very much.

Well, there you go, two historians with so much expertise and knowledge of the sources talking about the same subject but coming to such different conclusions. I hope you found this as interesting as I did.

This page is part of our collection about the origins of the First World War .

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5 strategies to unlock your winning college essay.

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 29: People walk through the gate on Harvard Yard at the Harvard ... [+] University campus on June 29, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admission policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution, bringing an end to affirmative action in higher education. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

The college application season is upon us, and high school students everywhere are staring down at one of the most daunting tasks: the college essay. As someone who has guided countless applicants through the admissions process and reviewed admissions essays on an undergraduate admissions committee, I've pinpointed the essential ingredient to a differentiated candidacy—the core of your college admissions X-factor .

The essential ingredient to your college admissions X-factor is your intellectual vitality. Intellectual vitality is your passion for learning and curiosity. By demonstrating and conveying this passion, you can transform an average essay into a compelling narrative that boosts your chances of getting accepted to your top schools. Here are five dynamic strategies to achieve that goal.

Unleash Your Authentic Voice

Admissions officers sift through thousands of essays every year. What stops them in their tracks? An authentic voice that leaps off the page. Forget trying to guess what the admissions committee wants to hear. Focus on being true to yourself. Share your unique perspective, your passions, and your values. Authenticity resonates deeply with application reviewers, making your essay memorable and impactful. You need not have experienced trauma or tragedy to create a strong narrative. You can write about what you know—intellectually or personally—to convey your enthusiasm, creativity, and leadership. Intellectual vitality shines through when you write with personalized reflection about what lights you up.

Weave A Captivating Story

Everyone loves a good story, and your essay is the perfect place to tell yours. The Common Application personal statement has seven choices of prompts to ground the structure for your narrative. The most compelling stories are often about the smallest moments in life, whether it’s shopping at Costco or about why you wear socks that have holes. Think of the Common Application personal statement as a window into your soul rather than a dry list of your achievements or your overly broad event-based life story. Use vivid anecdotes to bring your experiences to life. A well-told story can showcase your growth, highlight your character, and illustrate how you've overcome challenges. Intellectual vitality often emerges in these narratives, revealing how your curiosity and proactive approach to learning have driven you to explore and innovate.

Reflect And Reveal Insights

It's not just about what you've done—it's about what you've learned along the way. When you are writing about a specific event, you can use the STAR framework—situation, task, action, and result (your learning). Focus most of your writing space on the “R” part of this framework to dive deeply into your experiences and reflect on how they've shaped your aspirations and identity.

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The most insightful college-specific supplement essays demonstrate depth of thought, and the ability to connect past experiences with your future life in college and beyond. Reflecting on your intellectual journey signals maturity and a readiness to embrace the college experience. It shows admissions officers that you engage deeply with your studies and are eager to contribute to the academic community.

Highlight Your Contributions—But Don’t Brag

Whether it's a special talent, an unusual hobby, or a unique perspective, showcasing what you can bring to the college environment can make a significant impact. Recognize that the hard work behind the accomplishment is what colleges are interested in learning more about—not retelling about the accomplishment itself. (Honors and activities can be conveyed in another section of the application.) Walk us through the journey to your summit; don’t just take us to the peak and expect us know how you earned it.

Intellectual vitality can be demonstrated through your proactive approach to solving problems, starting new projects, or leading initiatives that reflect your passion for learning and growth. These experiences often have a place in the college-specific supplement essays. They ground the reasons why you want to study in your major and at the particular college.

Perfect Your Prose

Great writing is essential. Anyone can use AI or a thesaurus to assist with an essay, but AI cannot write your story in the way that you tell it. Admissions officers don’t give out extra credit for choosing the longest words with the most amount of syllables.

The best essays have clear, coherent language and are free of errors. The story is clearly and specifically told. After drafting, take the time to revise and polish your writing. Seek feedback from teachers, mentors, or trusted friends, but ensure the final piece is unmistakably yours. A well-crafted essay showcases your diligence and attention to detail—qualities that admissions officers highly value. Intellectual vitality is also reflected in your writing process, showing your commitment to excellence and your enthusiasm for presenting your best self.

Crafting a standout college essay is about presenting your true self in an engaging, reflective, and polished manner while showcasing your intellectual vitality. Happy writing.

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Louisiana high school grads explore good, bad aspects of social media through essays

S HREVEPORT, La. ( KTAL/KMSS ) – A group committed to providing financial assistance to college-bound students held an event on Saturday afternoon where students presented essays exploring the pros and cons of social media.

The African American Scholarship Committee has provided financial assistance through scholarships for graduating seniors in Shreveport, Bossier, and DeSoto Parish for 36 years. The committee was founded by Katie Latin who serves as director. Her son Ken Latin is the co-founder and chairman.

The graduates gathered at the Wallette Branch of the Shreve Memorial Library on June 1 to present essays to their peers, family members, committee members, and guests.

Scholarship recipients will enroll in an array of colleges and universities including Xavier University, ETBU, UL, Northwestern State University, ULM, and LSU to pursue degrees in fields ranging from health sciences to theological pursuits.

In previous years students explored how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their senior year of high school. This year’s 300-word offering asked the students to consider, “Does social media do more bad than good,” a subject that each of the 16 presenters should be considered subject matter experts in.

One by one students were called up to share their perspectives on the matter. The scholars made excellent arguments that highlighted social media benefits like the ability to broaden your horizons by learning history long omitted from public school curricula, the ability to stay connected to distant relatives, news gathering, heightened social awareness, and the potential to make money through promoting a personal brand or showcasing talent and skills.

Oppositely the teens were keenly aware and perhaps affected by the negative aspects of engaging on social media. They shared cautionary tales for older people in the audience who could be targeted by scammers, peer pressure, cyberbullying, body image issues, and the loss of privacy.

One student noted statistics like 50% of social media users have reported feeling lonely while 37% have admitted to having FOMO (fear of missing out).

Whether their stance was in favor of social media use, or presented the potential for physical harm or psychological damage all of the young presenters agreed that users should be vigilant and aware, because social media will be with us for a long time.

“How can you resist something that is becoming a necessity,” one essay contest participant pondered as she concluded her presentation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2024, So Far

Here’s what memoirs, histories, and essay collections we’re indulging in this spring.

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Truth-swallowing can too often taste of forced medicine. Where the most successful nonfiction triumphs is in its ability to instruct, encourage, and demand without spoon-feeding. Getting to read and reward this year’s best nonfiction, then, is as much a treat as a lesson. I can’t pretend to be as intelligent, empathetic, self-knowledgeable, or even as well-read as many of the authors on this list. But appreciating the results of their labors is a more-than-sufficient consolation.

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka

There’s a lot to ponder in the latest project from New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka, who elegantly argues that algorithms have eroded—if not erased—the essential development of personal taste. As Chayka puts forth in Filterworld , the age of flawed-but-fulfilling human cultural curation has given way to the sanitization of Spotify’s so-called “Discover” playlists, or of Netflix’s Emily in Paris, or of subway tile and shiplap . There’s perhaps an old-school sanctimony to this criticism that some readers might chafe against. But there’s also a very real and alarming truth to Chayka’s insights, assembled alongside interviews and examples that span decades, mediums, and genres under the giant umbrella we call “culture.” Filterworld is the kind of book worth wrestling with, critiquing, and absorbing deeply—the antithesis of mindless consumption.

American Girls: One Woman's Journey Into the Islamic State and Her Sister's Fight to Bring Her Home by Jessica Roy

In 2019, former ELLE digital director Jessica Roy published a story about the Sally sisters , two American women who grew up in the same Jehovah’s Witness family and married a pair of brothers—but only one of those sisters ended up in Syria, her husband fighting on behalf of ISIS. American Girls , Roy’s nonfiction debut, expands upon that story of sibling love, sibling rivalry, abuse and extremism, adding reams of reporting to create a riveting tale that treats its subjects with true empathy while never flinching from the reality of their choices.

Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood by Paula Delgado-Kling

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Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

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Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections by Emily Nagoski

Out January 30.

Emily Nagoski’s bestselling Come As You Are opened up a generations-wide conversation about women and their relationship with sex: why some love it, why some hate it, and why it can feel so impossible to find help or answers in either camp. In Come Together , Nagoski returns to the subject with a renewed focus on pleasure—and why it is ultimately so much more pivotal for long-term sexual relationships than spontaneity or frequency. This is not only an accessible, gentle-hearted guide to a still-taboo topic; it’s a fascinating exploration of how our most intimate connections can not just endure but thrive.

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer

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How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla Lawson

Out February 6.

“I used to say taking a trip was just a coping mechanism,” writes Shayla Lawson in their travel-memoir-in-essays How to Live Free in a Dangerous World . “I know better now; it’s my way of mapping the Earth, so I know there’s something to come back to.” In stream-of-consciousness prose, the This Is Major author guides the reader through an enthralling journey across Zimbabwe, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Bermuda, and beyond, using each location as the touchstone for their essays exploring how (and why) race, gender, grief, sexuality, beauty, and autonomy impact their experience of a land and its people. There’s a real courage and generosity to Lawson’s work; readers will find much here to embolden their own self-exploration.

Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See by Bianca Bosker

There’s no end to the arguments for “why art matters,” but in our era of ephemeral imagery and mass-produced decor, there is enormous wisdom to be gleaned from Get the Picture , Bianca Bosker’s insider account of art-world infatuation. In this new work of nonfiction, readers have the pleasure of following the Cork Dork author as she embeds herself amongst the gallerists, collectors, painters, critics, and performers who fill today’s contemporary scene. There, they teach her (and us) what makes art art— and why that question’s worth asking in an increasingly fractured world.

Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti

A profoundly unusual, experimental, yet engrossing work of not-quite-memoir, Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries is exactly what its title promises: The book comprises a decade of the author’s personal diaries, the sentences copied and pasted into alphabetical order. Each chapter begins with a new letter, all the accumulated sentences starting with “A”, then “B,” and so forth. The resulting effect is all but certain to repel some readers who crave a more linear storyline, but for those who can understand her ambition beyond the form, settling into the rhythm of Heti’s poetic observations gives way to a rich narrative reward.

Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon

Out February 20.

“Even now, I can taste my own history,” writes Chantha Nguon in her gorgeous Slow Noodles . “One occupying force tried to erase it all.” In this deeply personal memoir, Nguon guides us through her life as a Cambodian refugee from the Khmer Rouge; her escapes to Vietnam and Thailand; the loss of all those she loved and held dear; and the foods that kept her heritage—and her story—ultimately intact. Interwoven with recipes and lists of ingredients, Nguon’s heart-rending writing reinforces the joy and agony of her core thesis: “The past never goes away.”

Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison

The first time I stumbled upon a Leslie Jamison essay on (the platform formerly known as) Twitter, I was transfixed; I stayed in bed late into the morning as I clicked through her work, swallowing paragraphs like Skittles. But, of course, Jamison’s work is so much more satisfying than candy, and her new memoir, Splinters , is Jamison operating at the height of her talents. A tale of Jamison’s early motherhood and the end of her marriage, the book is unshrinking, nuanced, radiant, and so wondrously honest—a referendum on the splintered identities that complicate and comprise the artist, the wife, the mother, the woman.

The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider by Michiko Kakutani

The former chief book critic of the New York Times , Michiko Kakutani is not only an invaluable literary denizen, but also a brilliant observer of how politics and culture disrupt the mechanics of power and influence. In The Great Wave , she turns our attention toward global instability as epitomized by figures such as Donald Trump and watershed moments such as the creation of AI. In the midst of these numerous case studies, she argues for how our deeply interconnected world might better weather the competing crises that threaten to submerge us, should we not choose to better understand them.

Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg

From the author of the now-ubiquitous The Power of Habit arrives Supercommunicators , a head-first study of the tools that make conversations actually work . Charles Duhigg makes the case that every chat is really about one of three inquiries (“What’s this about?” “How do we feel?” or “Who are we?”) and knowing one from another is the key to real connection. Executives and professional-speaker types are sure to glom on to this sort of work, but my hope is that other, less business-oriented motives might be satisfied by the logic this volume imbues.

Whiskey Tender by Deborah Jackson Taffa

Out February 27.

“Tell me your favorite childhood memory, and I’ll tell you who you are,” or so writes Deborah Jackson Taffa in Whiskey Tender , her memoir of assimilation and separation as a mixed-tribe Native woman raised in the shadow of a specific portrait of the American Dream. As a descendant of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribe, Taffa illustrates her childhood in New Mexico while threading through the histories of her parents and grandparents, themselves forever altered by Indian boarding schools, government relocation, prison systems, and the “erasure of [our] own people.” Taffa’s is a story of immense and reverent heart, told with precise and pure skill.

Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

With its chapters organized by their position in the infamous five stages of grief, Sloane Crosley’s Grief is For People is at times bracingly funny, then abruptly sober. The effect is less like whiplash than recognition; anyone who has lost or grieved understands the way these emotions crash into each other without warning. Crosley makes excellent use of this reality in Grief is For People , as she weaves between two wrenching losses in her own life: the death of her dear friend Russell Perreault, and the robbery of her apartment. Crosley’s resulting story—short but powerful—is as difficult and precious and singular as grief itself.

American Negra by Natasha S. Alford

In American Negra , theGrio and CNN journalist Natasha S. Alford turns toward her own story, tracing the contours of her childhood in Syracuse, New York, as she came to understand the ways her Afro-Latino background built her—and set her apart. As the memoir follows Alford’s coming-of-age from Syracuse to Harvard University, then abroad and, later, across the U.S., the author highlights how she learned to embrace the cornerstones of intersectionality, in spite of her country’s many efforts to encourage the opposite.

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

Out March 5.

A raw and assured account by one of the most famous queer icons of our era, RuPaul’s memoir, The House of Hidden Meanings , promises readers arms-wide-open access to the drag queen before Drag Race . Detailing his childhood in California, his come-up in the drag scene, his own intimate love story, and his quest for living proudly in the face of unceasing condemnation, The House of Hidden Meanings is easily one of the most intriguing celebrity projects of the year.

Here After by Amy Lin

Here After reads like poetry: Its tiny, mere-sentences-long chapters only serve to strengthen its elegiac, ferocious impact. I was sobbing within minutes of opening this book. But I implore readers not to avoid the heavy subject matter; they will find in Amy Lin’s memoir such a profound and complex gift: the truth of her devotion to her husband, Kurtis, and the reality of her pain when he died suddenly, with neither platitudes nor hyperbole. This book is a little wonder—a clear, utterly courageous act of love.

Thunder Song by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe

Red Paint author and poet Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe returns this spring with a rhythmic memoir-in-essays called Thunder Song , following the beats of her upbringing as a queer Coast Salish woman entrenched in communities—the punk and music scenes, in particular—that did not always reflect or respect her. Blending beautiful family history with her own personal memories, LaPointe’s writing is a ballad against amnesia, and a call to action for healing, for decolonization, for hope.

Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against "The Apocalypse" by Emily Raboteau

Out March 12.

In Emily Raboteau’s Lessons For Survival , the author (and novelist, essayist, professor, and street photographer) tells us her framework for the book is modeled loosely after one of her mother’s quilts: “pieced together out of love by a parent who wants her children to inherit a world where life is sustainable.” The essays that follow are meditations and reports on motherhood in the midst of compounding crises, whether climate change or war or racism or mental health. Through stories and photographs drawn from her own life and her studies abroad, Raboteau grounds the audience in the beauty—and resilience—of nature.

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Remembering Bendel’s Legendary Morning Lineup

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The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reads of 2024

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