"The last peasant war reinterprets the 'age of catastrophe' as starting with the vehement reaction, late in the first World War, of central and eastern peasants against the belligerent states and their urban rulers. The 'Great War' that erupted in 1914 put unprecedented strain on the countryside, emptying it of able-bodied men and draft animals while imposing rapacious production quotas to feed armies and cities. Central and eastern European peasants felt the privations most acutely"--