1913: The World before the Great War

The world war that broke out in 1914 shattered the existing world economic order, tore Europe apart, and weakened its global dominance; 1913 was the year before that war. In this book, the British scholar Charles Emmerson frees the world of 1913 from the narrow interpretive frame of "the prelude to war," arguing that the world of that year was far more modern than remembered, and more like our own era than expected. Using cities as anchors for the narrative, the author takes readers on a global journey: the gold standard supported the global circulation of goods and currency, mass migration reshaped the world's demographic map, and steamships and submarine cables bound the earth into one. Ford's first assembly line started up in Detroit, the Woolworth Building rose in New York; Mexico was mired in a bloody revolution while Winnipeg and Buenos Aires were prospering; Iran entered the age of oil politics, and China began to wake from its slumbering imperial age; Paris called itself the "City of Light," while Berlin was truly the "City of Electricity." The book unfolds in four parts—"The Centre of the World," "The Old New World," "The World Beyond," and "The Twilight of the Great Powers"—moving from London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg to Washington, New York, Los Angeles, and Mexico City, and on to Winnipeg, Melbourne, Bombay, Tehran, Jerusalem, Constantinople, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo, weaving politics, economics, culture, and everyday detail into a panoramic picture of the prewar world. Drawing on travel guides, travelogues, memoirs, novels, and poetry, the author restores life to a world already lost and offers a new perspective for thinking about the past and the future.