The Burning of the World: A Memoir of 1914 (Béla Zombory-Moldován)

From another time, but with lessons for our own, the experience of a young Hungarian in war. And of why Americans should reject any future attempt to conscript us.

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"For more than 150 years, Americans have been mostly spared the cost of war. Yes, at times, some have felt the cost in the lives of their sons, though today our ruling classes know nothing even of that. But our wars are fought elsewhere, not in America. Thus, we can’t really conceive of a war for our national survival—except, abstractly, one involving a rain of warheads from the sky. Neither do Americans grasp, because they have never experienced it, how war can sweep over a nation unexpectedly, changing everything in an instant. This memoir is a salutary reminder of forgotten truths—and gives us reason to reflect on whether Americans should be willing to fight for “America” at all." . . .

[ludwigvonmises]

Thank you Charles. Always look forward to your reviews and commentary

[zach]

Charles, you mentioned once the enlightenment gets too much credit and we should understand the high Middle Ages instead.
Any advice on where to start?

[SalmonJonesTheMagnificent]

When you really dig deep down into it it really is just astounding how little the great war was even fought over. Like, all it would've taken is just a handful of short conversations between kings that all knew each other and tens of millions of lives could've been saved, and yet it just didn't happen.

It's hard to imagine a country's heir apperant to the throne getting whacked by another country in a military conspiracy and them NOT going to war over it, and yet that's what happened, and that was supposed to be the moral outrage that called the allies into action. Initially. Then they just made a bunch of shit up about the germans bayoneting babies and the like and that became the moral outrage calling them into action. And on and on.

Weird time, fascinating thing to study, and coming again soon to a reality near you, seemingly. Only this time the USA would be right about where imperial germany was, not as many allies as they think they have, fighting a war against the entire world over what really was some other guy's problem and to get one over on ancient enemies before they could strike you first. Difference being it's a lot easier to see where the germans were coming from and why they did it in WW1, and absolutely nobody in charge of america is a fiftieth of the man Kaiser Bill was.

[magneticweasel]

i agree. i do not want my people dying in pointless wars. however, if heritage americans leave the military, the foreigners who will replace them are even worse

[tothandhu]

War is the most terrible event. Destroys life and societies.

[robertstan]

however bad you think you have it, if we lose Europe to russia and Asia to china, it'll be worse by several orders of magnitude and you will look back longingly to this time