MovieChat Forums > All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Discussion > Can someone explain World War I to me?

Can someone explain World War I to me?

posted 12 years ago by mark-1602
67 replies | jump to latest

It's humbling to admit this, but I'm a 28-year-old U.S. resident and I know very, very little about World War I. I have the sketchiest of sketches. I know it was fought in the early 1900s, and involved people with pointy helmets, but not much more than that.

Anyway, I really would like to better understand this very significant part of history, but I've found the Wikipedia articles hard to follow (a little too factual, maybe). Is anyone out there able to give me sort of a general summary in plain language I could use as a road map for future studies? (Who, what, where, and most importantly why)

I know this is an odd request, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask!

[–] taylor-sue0 7 years ago

I didn't read through all the responses here so this may have already been mentioned, but a quick resource for World War I is the Crash Course video (Archdukes, Cynicism, and World War I:Crash Course World History #36)

[–] chainsaw_metal1 7 years ago

It all started when Kaiser Wilhelm tweeted some disparaging comments about the French.

[–] liscarkat (16592) a year ago

OP is a joke, right?

[–] FilmBuff (6699) a year ago

It doesn't read like a joke to me. It reads like a sincere request by someone who likely didn't pay attention in school, and has now grown up to regret it. I admire his willingness to come out and ask, and would gladly break it down for him if I thought he was likely to read it 11 years later.