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In Avery Craven's case he was a Quaker.
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But these were men deeply influenced
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by the utter disillusionment of World War One.
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They came of age and cut their teeth on history
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at a time when the world had collapsed into
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what seemed to be in the end an inexplicable meaningless war.
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There's that unforgettable scene at the very beginning
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of The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.
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No one reads her anymore.
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She was at one point the most popular historian in America.
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She wrote about the Middle Ages, she wrote about world wars,
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she wrote about all kinds of things.