A World on Edge

Journey into the heart of Europe, 1918 – a world left ravaged by World War 1, and on the cusp of radical change. Daniel Schönpflug's A World on Edge paints a vivid picture of a time when unorthodox ideas ignited the collective imagination – new politics, new societies, new art and culture, new thinking – hinting at new paths to tread.

Schönpflug tracks the lives of diverse personalities, encapsulating the struggle for the future, the clash of the old and the new, and the intimate human stories within these greater narratives. For rulers and revolutionaries, a world of power and privilege was dying – while for others, a dream of overthrowing democracy was being born.

The sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, translating sorrow and loss into art. Ho Chi Minh, working as a dishwasher in Paris and dreaming of liberating Vietnam. Captain Harry S. Truman, running a men’s haberdashery in Kansas City, hardly expecting that he was about to go bankrupt – and later become president of the United States. Virginia Woolf had just published her first book, while the artist George Grosz was so revolted by the violence on the streets of Berlin that he decides everything is meaningless.

Historian Daniel Schönpflug describes this watershed year as it was experienced on the ground – open ended, unfathomable, its outcome unclear. A World on Edge is the story of a decisive year – one that continues to echo in our times.