A brilliant cultural analysis redefining the origins and impact of World War IOn May 29 1913 near riot broke out in a Parisian audience as they watched the first performance of The Rites of Spring in which a young girl dances herself to death in celebration of the new spring while the world looks on. The story of The Rites of Spring is the starting point of this unusual and fascinating piece of non-fiction writing. In Modris Eksteins' discussion of the kinds of feeling evoked by the horrific conduct of trench warfare, the widespread psychic depression that followed the Armistice, and in his insights into the aftermath of the war, he brings a broad range of disciplines to bear on an understanding of the modern age.