For a “war to end all wars,” World War I ignited a remarkably bloody century. It also catalyzed a fundamental change in Western culture’s sense-of life. Why? How could the assassination of a single, unloved aristocrat have unleashed such a slaughter and brought on such change? On its 100th anniversary, this course examines WWI’s causes and consequences: not the battles, but the ideas and events that precipitated the war and the political and cultural effects that endure to the present.