The volume combines a narrative of events from 1914-1918 with an overarching argument about the relationship between state failure, social collapse, and decolonization. Imperial Apocalypse provides a readable account of military activity and political change throughout this turbulent period. It argues that the sudden rise of groups seeking national self-determination in the borderlands of the empire was the consequence of state failure, not its cause. At the same time, we see how the destruction of state institutions and the spread of violence led to a collapse of traditional social bonds and the emergence of a more dangerous and militant political atmosphere.

Joshua Sanborn is the David M. '70 and Linda Roth Professor of History at Lafayette College. In addition to Imperial Apocalypse (2014), he is the author of Drafting the Russian Nation: Military Conscription, Total War, and Mass Politics, 1905-1925 (2003) and the coauthor (with Annette Timm) of Gender, Sex, and the Shaping of Modern Europe: A History from the French Revolution to the Present Day. He is currently working on a book on scientists, spies, and culture in the Cold War.