Very readable memoir of the beginning of World War 1 in Austria-Hungary. The structure & pace of the narrative would lends this book to a movie adaptation. It reminded me a bit of Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (Moldovan was a figure somewhere between the drill instructor & Joker). I can also imagine reading this book for Kagan’s Central European History class at UC Davis (so many years ago now), in which we did read Jakob Walter’s “Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Solder”. Walter’s memoir has many similarities to Moldovan’s: They are both some of the only memoirs by foot soldiers from these conflicts (in Moldovan’s case, the 1914 Galician campaign); they were both written later in their authors’ lives; & they were both only discovered and published decades after they were written. The Burning of the World is full of the author’s perspectives (implicitly & explicitly told) on the late Austro-Hungarian Empire’s class structure, ethnic politics, & cultural life, in addition to his recollections & thoughts on his army service. Moldovan’s part in the battle of Rawa Ruska seemed to be part of an attempt by the Austro-Hungarians to maintain a defensive line in an area the Russians were bombarding. Bela noted abandoned and obliterated Austro-Hungarian positions & soldiers (living & dead) as he and his troops took up their positions, which were in turn themselves obliterated &/or abandoned hours later. It was interesting how it was kind of expected for officers to have personal servants, or to treat the soldiers as personal servants, even in the middle of a battle. Bela also displays the attitudes of urbanite Hungarian polite society towards ethnic minorities, & the lower classes, including the odd collection of ideas surrounding the figure of “the peasant” (e.g. “closer to the earth”) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The introduction by the translator/editor/grandson of the author is worth reading, providing the story of how this book came together along with historical & biographical background. The endnotes are also very worth flipping to.