"The Great War, as World War I was known in its time, was described by its survivors and contemporary historians as "the war to end all wars," "the war to make the world safe for democracy." By its end, in November 1918, Europe's authoritarian old empires had fallen, and new and seemingly democratic successor states and governments were rising from the ensuing debris. In chronicling an era that was both visionary and tempestuous, Howard M. Sachar directs our attention to the fate specifically of Europe's Jewish minority as a classic litmus test of the Continent's transformation."--BOOK JACKET.