Abstract
Volume II of the Culture and Totality series is thematically devoted to war, understood here as a formative framework. World War One, in its manifestations and consequences, completely transformed the mental and geographical map of the world.
Yet the studies collected in the volume do not follow exclusively the links outlined by this groundbreaking conflict. The texts seek to understand was as an extreme situation, wherein states and governments modify the rules of the established order, constrain their citizens and intervene brutally in their lives.
Especially the large was conflicts of the 20th century were "total wars" with the potential of drawing one epoch to its close and prepare the ground for the advent of a new era.