Towards an interconnected history of World War I: Europe and beyond

Abstract

In recent years, the historiography of World War I has undergone a very significant transformation in terms of its geographical scope and thematic reach. While most studies of World War I up to the 1990s focused on national experiences, a generation of new scholars subsequently began analyzing the War in comparative perspective across Europe and the world.1 The following decade saw the emergence of a global approach to First World War studies, pioneered by Hew Strachan and Michael Neiberg and developed in a range of recent reference works.2 Jay Winter has identified a significant increase in studies of the War as a transnational phenomenon, defined by Ian Tyrell as an emphasis on “the movement of peoples, ideas, technologies, and institutions across the border.”3 Due to both the transnational training of World War I historians and the collapse of political and ideological dichotomies with the end of the Cold War, a transnational view has emerged in opposition to an international approach which privileges the diplomatic history of the War.4