| Abstract: “What is at the root of the tendency to 'normalize the fantastic and unspeakable'—to conceive and write about horrific episodes of collective destruction and mass-murder as if these events are neither extraordinary nor pathological? What lies behind this desperate struggle to maintain our belief in the 'goodness' of civilization—in spite of the vast devastation that has been wrought in its name?” |
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Please scroll down to the table below: To summarize: 65 million troops were mobilized in the First World War; nearly 9 million were killed, 21 million wounded and nearly 8 million men were prisoners or reported missing in action.
Thus, an extraordinary total of over 37 million casualties, 56% of all men mobilized. What a fantastic event! What a massive, monumental ritual of destruction, or self-destruction. Yet historians write about the war without flinching, as if “nothing special” occurred.
Omer Bartov observes that the main trend of modern history is to "domestic the fantastic and to normalize the unspeakable." Norman O. Brown suggests that human history is the "history of a neurosis."
What is at the root of this tendency to “normalize the fantastic and unspeakable”—to conceive and write about horrific episodes of collective destruction and mass-murder as if these events are neither extraordinary nor pathological? What lies behind this desperate struggle to maintain our belief in the “goodness” of civilization—in spite of the vast devastation that has been wrought in its name?
| Countries |
Total
Mobilized |
Killed
& Died |
Wounded |
Prisoners
& Missing |
Total
Casualties |
Casualties %
of Mobilized |
| Allied Powers |
| Russia |
12,000,000 |
1,700,000 |
4,950,000 |
2,500,000 |
9,150,000 |
76.3 |
| France |
8,410,000 |
1,357,800 |
4,266,000 |
537,000 |
6,160,800 |
76.3 |
| British Empire |
8,904,467 |
908,371 |
2,090,212 |
191,652 |
3,190,235 |
35.8 |
| Italy |
5,615,000 |
650,000 |
947,000 |
600,000 |
2,197,000 |
39.1 |
| United States |
4,355,000 |
126,000 |
234,300 |
4,500 |
364,800 |
8.2 |
| Japan |
800,000 |
300 |
907 |
3 |
1,210 |
0.2 |
| Romania |
750,000 |
335,706 |
120,000 |
80,000 |
535,706 |
71.4 |
| Serbia |
707,343 |
45,000 |
133,148 |
152,958 |
331,106 |
46.8 |
| Belgium |
267,000 |
13,716 |
44,686 |
34,659 |
93,061 |
34.9 |
| Greece |
230,000 |
5,000 |
21,000 |
1,000 |
17,000 |
11.7 |
| Portugal |
100,000 |
7,222 |
13,751 |
12,318 |
33,291 |
33.3 |
| Montenegro |
50,000 |
3,000 |
10,000 |
7,000 |
20,000 |
40.0 |
| Total |
42,188,810 |
5,152,115 |
12,831,004 |
4,121,090 |
22,104,209 |
52.3 |
| Central Powers |
| Germany |
11,000,000 |
1,773,700 |
4,216,058 |
1,152,800 |
7,142,558 |
64.9 |
| Austria-Hungary |
7,800,000 |
1,200,000 |
3,620,000 |
2,200,000 |
7,020,000 |
90.0 |
| Turkey |
2,850,000 |
325,000 |
400,000 |
250,000 |
975,000 |
34.2 |
| Bulgaria |
1,200,000 |
87,500 |
152,390 |
27,029 |
266,919 |
22.2 |
| Total |
22,850,000 |
3,386,200 |
8,388,448 |
3,629,829 |
15,404,477 |
67.4 |
| Grand Total |
65,038,810 |
8,538,315 |
21,219,452 |
7,750,919 |
37,508,686 |
57.6 |
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