Ring of Fire

A New History of the World at War: 1914

Alexandra Churchill Nicolai Eberholst

The dramatic story of 1914—the start of World War I—presenting an expansive, dynamic history of the start of this truly global conflict.

Most countries did not know what they were getting into during the precarious days of 1914. Global citizens believed they were going to get a short conflict that would settle old scores in a matter of weeks—but it was soon clear that was not going to be the case.

From the Balkans to East Prussia, France, and Belgium, nineteenth-century warfare came face to face with twentieth-century technology and the ensuing, brutal clash of empires resulted in deadlock. And it was a truly global war, stretching from Europe to Oceania, from the Middle East to North America. It affected civilians as well as soldiers and governments, and for the first time, the world was faced with the fact that neutrality was practically impossible.

Understanding such a complex conflict is difficult, and over the last hundred years, it has been made even more so by a repeatedly blinkered approach to the history of it, with a focus almost entirely on English-language sources and a narrow view of the conflict through two main prisms—the Eastern Front and the Western Front. But what about the rest of the world? Countries like Australia and Canada willingly sent their young men to Europe. Danes were conscripted into the German army, North Africans immediately traveled to fight and die for France; and in colonies as remote as Samoa, men ran for ports and a chance to fight.

Ring of Fire will set out to rebalance our conceptions of a war that truly reshaped the world. Using access to an enormous quantity of primary material, largely untouched by general historians, the authors will tell the story of 1914 with a firm eye on presenting a truly comprehensive, inclusive popular history, a people's narrative that draws on source material from over twenty languages.

Alexandra Churchill has a master's degree in history and her thesis focused on the Somme in 1916. She appears regularly on television and in military history documentaries. Together, they are currently working on a documentary series for History Hit, in which they look at the plight of Belgium in 1914, before the British Army was first engaged at Mons. 

Nicolai Eberholst is a qualified archivist working in Copenhagen, where he has established a cult following on social media (@PikeGrey1418). His appearances on major podcasts have garnered thousands of downloads and high praise. Together, they have also been instrumental in the formation of the new Great War Group, which was established in 2020 to make the subject of World War I more inclusive.

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