The Great Crack-Up, Then and Now by Sheri Berman - Project Syndicate

The Great Crack-Up, Then and Now by Sheri Berman - Project Syndicate



...WWI was immensely destructive: approximately ten million people died, and perhaps three times as many were injured. By 1918, Europe was shattered, exhausted, and demoralized. And just as the war was ending, a global influenza pandemic struck, eventually killing perhaps 50 million more people.



... By 1918, France was no longer a “power of global rank,” and even the mighty British Empire had been eclipsed by the US. In 1916, US economic output overtook that of Great Britain and its colonies. And by the end of the war, America had emerged with a global pre-eminence “so overwhelming” that many asked if a “universal, world-encompassing empire” might be possible once again...