"In this seminal work, Ian F. W. Beckett challenges the cliched images of the Great War that have come to dominate popular culture. Rather than dismissing the War as an exercise in mindless futility, he argues that, on the contrary, it was vital to the national interests of its participants, and shows how what originated as a European affair became a global event involving not only the extended colonial empires of European nations but also Japan, China, the Ottoman Empire, Latin America and the United States."--BOOK JACKET.