Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers unique perspectives on the First World War beyond the Western Front, which has dominated the field until recently. It shows that emerging European perspectives and approaches on its own troubled history and its legacies. The book provides voice to new information, interpretations, and ideas that range geographically from Slovenia and Italy to Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. World history has been marked by bloody conflicts ever since human beings created weapons. The multifaceted remnants are part of the equally multilayered and enduring legacies of the First World War, and represent important archaeological, historical, geographical, sociological, and technical sources for understanding the conflict and its aftermath. A younger generation of scholars have adopted new research strategies to gain knowledge about various aspects of the First World War and its many multilayered legacies.