In 1914 Europe descended into a slaughter unlike anything that had been seen before. Yet, far from seeing the conflict as a tragedy, many men welcomed it as a healthy development for society, a relief from peace. The Great Adventure explores the intellectual trends that made war seem a natural and high expression of social values. This is not a book about the specific causes of World War I, but a study of the mood in which it could take place.

What the book uncovers is a complex of deeply ingrained attitudes about manhood, sex, power, maturity, boredom, and war that defined a...

Was it really such a "good war"? It was, if popular memory is to be trusted. We knew who the enemy was. We knew what we were fighting for. The war was good for the economy. It was liberating for women. It was a war of tanks and airplanes--a cleaner war than World War I. Americans were united. Soldiers were proud. It was a time of prosperity, sound morality, and power.

But according to historian Michael Adams, our memory is distorted, and it has left us with a misleading--even dangerous--legacy. Challenging many of our common assumptions about the period, Adams argues that our experience...