Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

Hey everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. Welcome to the Megan Kelly show and today's Sunday mega episode. We are switching things up for a few weeks with a focus on our history shows from the

archives. Today, a deep dive on World War I and World War II. You're going to love these.

Enjoy and see you Monday. We focus today on World War I, better known to some as the Great

War. The war began in 1914 and brought in global

powers from across the world, with the central powers facing off against the allied powers,

which eventually included the United States. By the end of the war, over 20 million lives had

been claimed, including more than 100,000 American troops.

The impact of the war changed the face of the world, and it's felt even today.

But the reasons behind the start of the war and even the rationale for continuing the fight

are nuanced. Later, we're going to be joined by Doug Brunt. He is my husband. He hosts the podcast

dedicated with Doug Brunt, which is about authors, but he's also a historian, and he is

neck deep in a tome he is writing that is amazing on this exact period. So he'll join us for a bit.

But first, we start with the historian on this period, American author,

Professor of History at Bard College, Sean McMeekin.

Sean, welcome to the show. So glad to have you. Thanks for having me on, Megan. It's really great to be here.

My husband, Doug, is a huge fan of yours. He's read your books.

He's a self-taught student of World War I. And I was very excited to hear that I was going to be

speaking to you. So I have to pass along his regards. Great. Thank you. All right. So let's start

big picture, because I think a lot of people know a lot about World War II and maybe a little less about World War I. Describe sort of the world as we approached World War I, turn of the century into the 1900s. And like, who were the top world powers at that time? Who was waning? Who was strong?

Well, the United States was certainly emerging as a world power. But as far as the old world, it was still, I wouldn't say second rate exactly. But for diplomats, it was not necessarily the prestige post. That is to say, if you were a diplomat, you were ambitious, you probably wouldn't want to get posted to Washington because a lot of the action was still in Europe. The European powers ruled over something like 85% of the surface of the globe. The Great Empire, Britain was the largest and certainly the most diverse and global. It was often said the sun never set famously on the British Empire.

But France had a pretty enormous empire as well in both Asia and Africa.

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