Introduction: 1919 The Year When things Fell Apart?

Abstract

After the worst war in history – ‘the war to end all wars’ – there were hopes for a lasting peace and a better world. 1919 was to be the year for recovery, peace-making and the healing of wounds. Instead the world was afflicted by a terrible influenza pandemic that took more lives than the Great War itself. The huge death toll from the war and the pandemic excited fears of national decay. Soldiers returning home were often ill and restive, and sometimes radical and violent. Across the world there were race riots, prolonged industrial disputes, political protests, revolutions and counter-revolutions, and in Europe the first stirrings of fascism. At the Versailles Peace Conference, the victors..