Du café liégeois au soldat inconnu

A dive into a past that forever marked our history

In this book, the authors' objective is to pinpoint a certain number of events, issues, but also traces left by the first world conflict on Belgian society. It is not intended to be exhaustive, several volumes would not be enough.

A journey that begins ....

The approach borrows rather from Proust's madeleine. Places, objects and symbols punctuate the subject through some fifty richly illustrated entries drawing on the most recent historiography. Like any book, this one certainly has a beginning ( Belgium invaded) and an end (the Great War today) but, like any tourist guide, the visit can start anywhere: on the floating bridge in Antwerp or in the city halls where the Belgians in 1915 will, for the first time, have to go and get their identity papers.

Events, issues at stake, but also traces left by the First World War on Belgian society