It will never be possible to fully calculate the toll in human lives taken during the First World War. Deaths on the battlefield, civilian deaths and deaths due to epidemics cost millions of lives, worldwide. The short-term impact was devastating, but in the long term the war may have had negligible demographic consequences. Accurate death numbers are difficult to calculate. It is believed that between 9 and 10 million servicemen were killed during the war. The calculations are further complicated when trying to determine civilian casualties. Beckett notes that a calculation for Britain, France, Germany and Austria-Hungary produces a civilian death toll of 3.7 million and a birth deficit of 15.3 million. Another calculation yields a number between 20 and 24 million. These losses do not take into account the deaths of Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania or any Balkan nation. They also do not contain 1.5 million Armenian victims of the Turkish genocide. The disease was a major cause of death, especially of civilians, during Fi...