Short Synopsis
Releasing on the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, The Deluge is a powerful explanation of why the war's legacy continues to shape our world—from Adam Tooze, the Wolfson Prize–winning author of The Wages of Destruction.

Full Synopsis
In the depths of the Great War, with millions dead and no imaginable end to the conflict, societies around the world began to buckle. The heart of the financial system shifted from London to New York. The infinite demands for men and materiel reached into countries far from the front. The strain of the war ravaged all economic and political assumptions, bringing unheard-of changes in the social and industrial order.

A century after the outbreak of fighting, Adam Tooze revisits this seismic moment in history, challenging the existing narrative of the war, its peace, and its aftereffects. From the day the United States entered the war in 1917 to the precipice of global financial ruin, Tooze delineates the world remade by American economic and military power. Tracing the ways in which countries came to terms with America's centrality—including the slide into fascism—The Deluge is a chilling work of great originality that will fundamentally change how we view the legacy of World War I.

"Tooze's grand economic history is stimulating, persuasive, and surprisingly accessible." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"Bold and ambitious . . . The Deluge is the work of a fine historian at the peak of his powers." ---The Observer (UK)

"A lucid, first-rate history of the results of a war whose beginning a century ago we are busily commemorating." ---Kirkus Starred Review

Publishers Weekly Review

Kirkus Bestseller

2015 Kirkus Prize

Kirkus Review