The Year Before

  This year we are observing the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I or the Great War.
  What did the world (or at least the Western World) look like a year prior to that?  A book 1913: IN SEARCH OF THE WORLD BEFORE THE GREAT WAR http://smcl.bibliocommons.com/search?t=title&search_category=title&q=1913&commit=Search   gives us a fascinating glimpse of the political, social, and artistic events of the time.  There was already a sense of unease, a restlessness, a curiosity about what this new century portended.
  In the arts there are two events that would shake up everything people had come to expect.  THE STORY OF THE ARMORY SHOW http://smcl.bibliocommons.com/search?t=title&search_category=title&q=STORY+OF+THE+ARMORY+SHOW&commit...  gives us an idea of where this was going.
  In the world of music there were also unsettling events.  Suppose you were going out for an evening at the ballet.  You had certain expectations.
Instead, this is what you got http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF1OQkHybEQ  .  In Paris you had fist fights breaking out.
  As things progressed the situation becomes more tense.  THE SLEEPWALKERS: HOW EUROPE WENT TO WAR IN 1914 http://smcl.bibliocommons.com/search?t=title&search_category=title&q=sleepwalkers&commit=Search gives us a feeling for what this time looked and felt like for those living on this side of the Atlantic.
  Joe Toschik is a Public Services Librarian at Half Moon Bay Library who has visited the battle field at Verdun and been appalled at the moonscape created by "conventional" weapons.