The Generation of 1914 by Robert Wohl

The Generation of 1914 by Robert Wohl

The generation of 1914 holds a special place in memory, affection, and myth. In this irresistible and moving book, Robert Wohl rescues it from the shadows of legend and brings it fully into the realm of understanding. He tells the story of the young men--the middle class elite of five European countries, France, Germany, England, Spain, and Italy, to recreate the generational consciousness that united them as well as the unique national experience that made them different. These were men born at the end of the nineteenth century when the world of reason was disintegrating into a world of irrationality. They were destined to rule but their lives were interrupted by the greatest of wars, leaving them searching for identity and historical continuity. Wohl recaptures this search through novels, poems, autobiographies, memoirs, sociological treatises, philosophical essays, university lectures, political speeches, conversations when recorded, letters, personal notebooks, and newspaper articles. His book is a brilliant study of European mentalities, both collective and individual. Probing behind ideas to find the experience that inspired them, Wohl illuminates in unexpected ways the origins of World War I and its impact on its participants. His exploration of the consciousness of generational unity and the power of the generational bond enables him to place in a novel context the spread of pessimism and despair, the waning of liberal and humanitarian values, the rise of Communist and Fascist movements, and the sudden eruption of violence in Europe's progressive countries between the two world wars.

Although so different in subject and approach, the originality and absorbing freshness with which this study is written creates something of the excitement which one felt when one discovered Edmund Wilson's To the Finland Station or JL. Lowes's The Road to Xanadu. It tells how, 'round about 1880, all over Europe and in Britain, the word 'generation' ceased to mean what it had done for centuries ... and came to mean 'youth' and its special values, energies, repudiations and abilities. According to the myth . . . this 'generation' had no sooner . . . shown itself full of a promise . . . than it got 'lost' in the Flanders mudbath prepared for it by wily old men (and women). Mr. Wohl gives a tart synopsis of this romantic simplification, and provides us with an altogether nobler, often absurd and dangerous, and finally more enthralling scene. * The Listener *
This is a work of broad and impeccable scholarship...Succinct, lucid, and superbly written, it is the best history to deal with the problem of generation...[Wohl's] talent for incisive portraiture is remarkable. -- Robert Rosenstone * New Republic *
A superb work of cultural history, a study of lives lived and sensibilities formed in the shadow of war and upheaval. -- Fritz Stern * Foreign Affairs *

Robert Wohl is Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780674344662
ISBN 10	0674344669
Title	The Generation of 1914
Author	Robert Wohl
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Harvard University Press
Year published	1979-01-01
Number of pages	324
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.