| “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?” |
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Please scroll down to the table below before reading this text. Summarize the data on the First World War: 65 million troops were mobilized, nearly 9 million killed, 21 million wounded and nearly 8 million men were prisoners or reported missing in action.
Thus, an extraordinary total of 37 million casualties, 56% of all men mobilized.
What an extraordinary event, a massive, monumental ritual destruction or self-destruction.
Yet historians write about the war without flinching--as if nothing special had occurred. Omer Bartov observes that the main trend of modern history is to "domestic the fantastic and to normalize the unspeakable."
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 the name of civilization?
Perhaps the most significant factor impeding our effort to understand historical episodes of mass-destruction is the assumption of rationality. Western thought tends to revolve around a persistent, determined effort to pretend that human beings are guided by “rational thought.”
Conventional historical narratives claim that each combatant of the First World War was pursuing its “interests.” Each nation had good reasons for going to war, but somehow plans went awry.
In spite of the results of the First World War--and of other disastrous historical events in the 20th century--we still resist focusing on motives of destruction and self-destruction.
The First World War did not happen by chance. It was not an "accident." Human beings willed the disaster into being.
Historians do not focus upon the profound motives that generate historical events. It is as if psychology has been banned from the discipline. It's as if historical events "go on by themselves." History simply "happens"--without the intervention of human beings.
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| 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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