What Was The 'Worst' Year In History? 10 Historians Give Their Answer

"Black Death." Online Media. World Book Advanced. World Book, 2015. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.

Matthew Pratt Guterl, Business Insider/Slate: I asked 10 historians to nominate the 'worst' year in history — here are their picks

When news of the truck killings in Nice, France, broke last week, I started seeing variations of the same sentiment on Twitter and Facebook: Is this the worst year ever, or what? Terror attacks, Zika, Brexit, police shootings, Syria, Trump, record-hot temperatures, the losses of Prince and David Bowie—this has been one unrelenting turn around the calendar.

Have terrifying events truly piled up on each other in 2016, in a way they didn’t in any other year in human history? Or is it impossible to judge the awfulness of a year while it’s still unfolding? Do we just notice negative happenings more these days because of our high levels of connectivity? And what does “worst year” even mean—“worst year” for Americans, for humanity, for the planet?

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WNU Editor: If I put on my historian hat .... I would nominate 1348 (Black Death). My Russian hat would be 1917 (Russian Revolution), followed by 1941 .... the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. My North American hat .... 1863 was the year of Gettysburg and the mid-way point of the American Civil War.

As for the future .... a nuclear war or a major catastrophic event like a super volcano or a massive meteorite strike .... that year would be regarded as the worst year in history.

Is The World Getting Safer?

The Titus Arch in Rome that celebrates the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD

Mark Buchanan, Bloomberg: Is the World Getting Safer? Maybe Not

Is the world getting more peaceful? Some academics think so. New research, though, suggests they might be getting their math wrong.

Since 1945, armed conflicts between great powers have become much less frequent, and the annual number of fatalities has consistently declined. This has led some people -- among them the noted psychologist Steven Pinker, in his book "The Better Angels of Our Nature" -- to suggest that humanity may, perhaps, be growing out of war and moving into a more peaceful era. It's an idea that military historians find intriguing, and quite plausible.

Unfortunately, it may also be wishful thinking. Getting statistics right is hard, and it's especially hard when dealing with wars, which -- like earthquakes and financial markets -- follow a highly erratic pattern. Long periods of relative stability are punctuated by sudden, catastrophic events, such as World War II, which took the lives of millions. Statistically speaking, the data have "fat tails," meaning that a few observations account for most of the phenomenon being studied. As a result, indicators such as the average number of deaths per year can be misleading -- after any big event, things will always look like they're getting better.

WNU Editor: I have always been a student of history .... specifically wars and conflicts. I also study trends .... specifically on where wars and conflicts will be next month/year/decade. Is the world getting safer .... my answer would be no. The old nationalist/religious/tribal/sectarian conflicts are coming back with a vengeance .... and coupled this with a debt/financial/economic crisis facing most nations .... something is going to give. My only hope is that when that happens .... it is not a world war but regional and/or internal conflicts.

How World War II Wasn’t Won -- A Commentary

Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers

From The New York Times:

SIXTY-FIVE years ago, in November 1944, the war in Europe was at a stalemate. A resurgent Wehrmacht had halted the Allied armies along Germany’s borders after its headlong retreat across northern France following D-Day. From Holland to France, the front was static — yet thousands of Allied soldiers continued to die in futile battles to reach the Rhine River.

One Allied army, however, was still on the move. The Sixth Army Group reached the Rhine at Strasbourg, France, on Nov. 24, and its commander, Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, looked across its muddy waters into Germany. His force, made up of the United States Seventh and French First Armies, 350,000 men, had landed Aug. 15 near Marseille — an invasion largely overlooked by history but regarded at the time as “the second D-Day” — and advanced through southern France to Strasbourg. No other Allied army had yet reached the Rhine, not even hard-charging George Patton’s.

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My Comment: A must read article for World War II buffs.

Gen. Sherman's 'Disproportionate Response' -- A Commentary

From American Thinker:

Reviled in the South to this day as a terrorist, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman decided that the only way to end the protracted armed conflict of the American Civil War and terminate the rebellious, racist, slave-regime in the south was to bring the war home to the civilian population of the Confederacy. Defying conventional military wisdom, he turned his back on the Confederate field armies, captured and burned Atlanta, and commenced his "March to the Sea". According to Wikepedia"

He and U.S. Army commander, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, believed that the Civil War would end only if the Confederacy's strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken. Sherman therefore applied the principles of scorched earth, ordering his troops to burn crops, kill livestock, consume supplies, and destroy civilian infrastructure along their path."

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