Synopses & Reviews
Today, 1913 is inevitably viewed through the lens of 1914: as the last year before a war that would shatter the global economic order and tear Europe apart, undermining its global pre-eminence. Our perspectives narrowed by hindsight, the world of that year is reduced to its most frivolous featuresand#151;last summers in grand aristocratic residencesand#151;or its most destructive ones: the unresolved rivalries of the great European powers, the fear of revolution, violence in the Balkans.
In this illuminating history, Charles Emmerson liberates the world of 1913 from this and#147;prelude to warand#8221; narrative, and explores it as it was, in all its richness and complexity. Traveling from Europeand#8217;s capitals, then at the height of their global reach, to the emerging metropolises of Canada and the United States, the imperial cities of Asia and Africa, and the boomtowns of Australia and South America, he provides a panoramic view of a world crackling with possibilities, its future still undecided, its outlook still open.
The world in 1913 was more modern than we remember, more similar to our own times than we expect, more globalized than ever before. The Gold Standard underpinned global flows of goods and money, while mass migration reshaped the worldand#8217;s human geography. Steamships and sub-sea cables encircled the earth, along with new technologies and new ideas. Fordand#8217;s first assembly line cranked to life in 1913 in Detroit. The Woolworth Building went up in New York. While Mexico was in the midst of bloody revolution, Winnipeg and Buenos Aires boomed. An era of petro-geopolitics opened in Iran. China appeared to be awaking from its imperial slumber. Paris celebrated itself as the city of lightand#151;Berlin as the city of electricity.
Full of fascinating characters, stories, and insights, 1913: In Search of the World before the Great War brings a lost world vividly back to life, with provocative implications for how we understand our past and how we think about our future.
Review
Wall Street Journal[Emmerson draws] upon an impressive range of contemporary source material, ranging from travel guides and memoirs to unpublished diaries, newspaper reports and diplomatic memos. They give a vivid portrait of the rapid changes occurring in daily life around the globe
.Charles Emmerson captures all the world's hope and excitement as it experienced an economic El Dorado. 1913 is history without hindsight at its best.”
Washington Post
In each city the author vividly surveys the political, economic and cultural scenes. The effect is transporting; 1913 is both passport and time machine
The centenary of the Great War will no doubt see the publication of many fine histories of the conflict, but few are likely to paint so alluring a portrait of the world that was consumed by it and that helped bring it about.”
Daily Beast
With the looming 100th anniversary of World War I, a spate of books about the not-so-Great War have begun to emerge. Emmerson's effort stands out for several reasons. First, Emmerson ranges widely, from Germany to Paris, from Bombay to Tokyo. Second, he is a sparkling writer, his narrative rarely flags and he has amassed a startling amount of detail.”
The Economist
[Emmerson] aims not to explain what caused or was lost to the war, but to retrieve from the partial glare of hindsight the world in which it erupted. This is no modest undertaking. Mr Emmerson draws from a wide range of sources, including memoirs, billboards and newspapers, to recreate a year that was fairly uneventful.
Not unlike Marcel Prousts In Search of Lost Time”, the first instalments of which were published in 1913, his narrative finds coherence in the unremarkable
[W]hat emerges is a rich portrait and an important set of ideas.”
Financial Times
Emmerson offers an impressive sweep that marshals much detail along the way, though at times there is a sense of being on a historical package tour (Baedeker is, indeed, a frequently cited source) in which some city breaks are better rendered than others. But there are some gems. In the patchwork Austro-Hungarian empire, one could drive on both sides of the road and there were 10 official languages but no translators in parliament. Does anyone wonder that it fell apart?”
Macleans
An eye-opening demonstration of just how modern the supposedly premodern world was”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Marvelous
Emmerson, a scholar at Chatham House, a renowned London think tank, brilliantly avoids the inevitability trap in 1913. His panoramic depiction of the last year before the Great War permits us to see the world as it might have looked through contemporary eyes, in its full colour and complexity, with a sense of the future's openness
Emmerson is a superb guide and companion, whether inviting us to take a seat next to him in a favourite corner of a Viennese cafe or to survey tout Paris from the Eiffel Tower. In many ways, his book works as a time-travelogue; indeed, it frequently quotes contemporary tourist literature and travelers' accounts.”
Christian Science Monitor
Emmersons project would not be as compelling if he had simply focused on Europe, or on England and her colonies. The Great War was truly a global war, and the world of 1913 was truly a global society. In his book, Emmerson gives fair weight to societies around the world rather than presenting the year from a Eurocentric point of view.”
Booklist
Portraying the European capitals of the next years belligerent countries, Emmerson strikes a cosmopolitan tone by noting social interconnections linking London to Paris to Berlin to Constantinople.
Including stops in Tehran, Mexico City, Jerusalem, several U.S. cities, Shanghai, and Tokyo, Emmersons historical world tour emotively captures the civilization soon to vanish in WWI.”
Library Journal, STARRED review
A fascinating birds-eye view of a landscape seen in what was the dying light of empire and on the brink of tragedy
An imaginatively conceived, thoroughly researched, and outstandingly written perspective that is highly recommended for both academic and general readers.”
Bookslut
Charles Emmerson has written a book that contains much in the way of wistfulness, hope, bitterness, discord, assassinations, technological advancement, and enmity between nations and peoples
We may not ever fully know the reasons or reasoning behind the urge for war, and Charles Emmerson wisely does not bring them all out, but in 1913 his synthesis of the nervousness, striving, and strains in specific parts of the world give us a better understanding of the upheavals that led to the First World War.”
Galveston Daily News
The book reveals a world both different from todays world, yet still familiar in many ways. It captures the year of 1913 in a way that is fascinating and revealing.”
Shepherd Express (Wisconsin)
Witty and knowledgeable, Emmerson packs his account with telling anecdotes.”
The Spectator (UK)
A masterful, comprehensive portrait of the world at that last moment in its history when Europe was incontrovertibly the centre of the universe and, within it, London the centre of the world
Charles Emmersons 1913 brilliantly rescues [history] from the shadow of a war that would toll the end of the Old World and leave its survivors repining the loss of a Golden Age that had never been.”
The Guardian
An ambitious, subtle account of the way the world was going until the first world war changed everything.”
Daily Mail (UK)
This ambitious panorama of a world on the brink throws up comparisons which are constantly provocative and fascinating.”
The Express (UK)
Where Emmerson really scores is in the nuggets of detail and contemporary quotes that sparkle from these essays.”
The Scotsman
It is an epic, sprawling panorama of a book, intended to show the moving world as it was, to bring the past to life in order to clarify the present. Its a monumentally ambitious aim. The remarkable thing is, he pulls it off.”
The Guardian (UK)
1913 has narrative verve and insight”
The Times (UK)
The old empires were starting to implode and the centres could no longer hold. In an ambitious book, Emmerson catches their last vital sparks in the year before darkness fell.”
New Statesman (UK)
One of the great merits of Charles Emmersons global panorama is to show events in the months leading up to the summer of 1914 as something other than a precursor to mass slaughter.”
The Independent (UK)
Emmerson has done his homework. His book girdles the earth in an impressive fashion and conjures up a world we have lost.”
Sunday Business Post (Ireland)
Emmerson's book is an ambitious effort
But there is so much that captivates, particularly the entertaining social detail and anecdote, such as the fact it took three years to assess JP Morgan's gargantuan estate, which included 138 watches in one of his houses in London.”
CHOICE
A broad picture that, while centered in Europe, contains a welcome international dimension
a revealing picture of life before the catastrophe of 1914.”
Review
The Guardian (UK)and#147;To capture a year of the world in a single snapshot is, of course, impossible, but Emmerson provides a real sense of 1913 by combining details of individual lives with sweeping international trends: one of the great pleasures of this book is to see parallels between then and now."
New York Review of Books
"...Letand#8217;s pause at this point, for Charles Emmersonand#8217;s book presents a remarkable anatomy of the world in that single year 1913. He casts it in the form of spirited and diverting vignettes, with lively quotations and local color.
Booklist
and#147;Portraying the European capitals of the next yearand#8217;s belligerent countries, Emmerson strikes a cosmopolitan tone by noting social interconnections linking London to Paris to Berlin to Constantinople.and#133;Including stops in Tehran, Mexico City, Jerusalem, several U.S. cities, Shanghai, and Tokyo, Emmersonand#8217;s historical world tour emotively captures the civilization soon to vanish in WWI.and#8221;
The Guardian (UK)
and#147;1913and#160;has narrative verve and insightand#8221;
The Times (UK)
and#147;The old empires were starting to implode and the centres could no longer hold.and#160; In an ambitious book, Emmerson catches their last vital sparks in the year before darkness fell.and#8221;
New Statesman (UK)
and#147;One of the great merits of Charles Emmersonand#8217;s global panorama is to show events in the months leading up to the summer of 1914 as something other than a precursor to mass slaughter.and#8221;
The Independent (UK)
and#147;Emmerson has done his homework. His book girdles the earth in an impressive fashion and conjures up a world we have lost.and#8221;
Sunday Business Post (Ireland)
and#147;Emmerson's book is an ambitious effortand#133;But there is so much that captivates, particularly the entertaining social detail and anecdote, such as the fact it took three years to assess JP Morgan's gargantuan estate, which included 138 watches in one of his houses in London.and#8221;
The Spectator (UK)
and#147;a masterful, comprehensive portrait of the world at that last moment in its history when Europe was incontrovertibly and#145;the centre of the universeand#8217; and, within it, London and#145;the centre of the worldand#8217;and#133;Charles Emmersonand#8217;sand#160;1913and#160;brilliantly rescues [history] from the shadow of a war that would toll the end of the Old World and leave its survivors repining the loss of a Golden Age that had never been.and#8221;
The Express (UK)
and#147;Where Emmerson really scores is in the nuggets of detail and contemporary quotes that sparkle from these essays.and#8221;
The Scotsman
and#147;It is an epic, sprawling panorama of a book, intended to show the moving world as it was, to bring the past to life in order to clarify the present. Itand#8217;s a monumentally ambitious aim. The remarkable thing is, he pulls it off.and#8221;
The Guardian
and#147;An ambitious, subtle account of the way the world was going until the first world war changed everything.and#8221;and#160;
Daily Mail (UK)
and#147;This ambitious panorama of a world on the brink throws up comparisons which are constantly provocative and fascinating.and#8221;
Cleveland Plain Dealer
and#147;Marvelousand#133; Emmerson, a scholar at Chatham House, a renowned London think tank, brilliantly avoids the inevitability trap in and#145;1913.and#8217; His panoramic depiction of the last year before the Great War permits us to see the world and#145;as it might have looked through contemporary eyes, in its full colour and complexity, with a sense of the future's opennessand#8217;and#133;Emmerson is a superb guide and companion, whether inviting us to take a seat next to him in and#145;a favourite cornerand#8217; of a Viennese cafe or to surveyand#160;tout Parisand#160;from the Eiffel Tower. In many ways, his book works as a and#145;time-travelogueand#8217;; indeed, it frequently quotes contemporary tourist literature and travelers' accounts.and#8221;
Christian Science Monitor
and#147;Emmersonand#8217;s project would not be as compelling if he had simply focused on Europe, or on England and her colonies. The Great War was truly a global war, and the world of 1913 was truly a global society. In his book, Emmerson gives fair weight to societies around the world rather than
Synopsis
Today, we inevitably view 1913 through the lens of 1914: as the last year before a war that would shatter the global economic order and tear Europe apart. Yet hindsight can obscure as muchor morethan it reveals. In this illuminating history, Charles Emmerson liberates the world of 1913 from this prelude to war” narrative and explores it as it was.
Traveling from Europes capitals to Bombay, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, Winnipeg, Los Angeles, Peking, and beyond, Emmerson restores 1913 to contemporary freshness and illuminates a world more integrated and internationalized than we recall. A truly global economy had emerged for the first time, underpinned by the gold standard. New railroads, shipping routes, and cables made the world smaller. The first Model T-Ford drove off an assembly line. The Young Turks challenged the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. Mass migration was fundamentally reshaping the globes human geography.
Full of fascinating characters, stories, and insights, 1913 brings a lost world vividly back to life, with provocative implications for how we understand history and ourselves.
About the Author
Charles Emmerson was born in Australia and grew up in London. After graduating top of his class in modern history from Oxford University, he took up an Entente Cordiale scholarship to study international relations and international public law in Paris. The author of The Future History of the Arctic, he writes and speaks widely on international affairs. He is a senior research fellow at Chatham House (the Royal Institute for International Affairs).