We are facing a worrying moment. The West doesn’t understand the struggle that the nations which liberated themselves from the stranglehold of Communism 30 years ago are waging for sovereignty and intellectual autonomy. Meanwhile the peoples on the other side of what used to be the Iron Curtain are perplexed by the insensitivity shown by the West and by the neo-Marxist view of history it now upholds, which claims an exclusive right to interpret the past.

The global conflagration that erupted in 1914 exploded the old world and opened the way to a new, unprecedentedly cruel era – the 20th century. Early attempts to interpret the Great War described it as a clash between good and evil. That narrative is still shared by many. Mária Schmidt’s wide-ranging analysis attempts to transcend these diametrically-opposed explanations of the war. With a mere 100 years of hindsight, we can say that this book marks a real beginning. It will serve as a reference for many future studies.

Warum wird Europa auch noch ein Vierteljahrhundert nach dem Sturz des Kommunismus von einem politischen Denken beherrscht, das unfähig ist sich mit unseren tatsächlichen Problemen zu beschäftigen?