In Chapter 6, the disastrous Carpathian winter war battle in early 1915 is described in detail including its significance and detailed description of some of the worst battlefield conditions ever witnessed in the history of warfare. Many soldiers succumbed to the “White Death,” or freezing to death. The point is made that the battle should never have been fought. The drawn-out negotiations with Italy and then the first four Isonzo River battles are presented. The great Central Power victory of Gorlice–Tarnow is described, followed by the disastrous Habsburg Rovno campaign. Finally, the chapter describes the German-commanded Serbian campaign and its repercussions for the Central Powers.

Located in Anhui and Jiangxi provinces, the fieldwork counties of Eastern County, Western County, Tranquil County and Jade County shared many characteristics. These included: a devalued ‘rural’ status; a prevalence of low-quality and low-paying local off-farm jobs; histories of economic and educational deprivation manifest in the grandparents’ and parents’ emplaced biographies; and a patriarchal family culture. In the 2010s these counties also had high rates of labour migration with over half of rural children affected by the migration of at least one parent. At the same time, the four fieldwork sites had distinctive features that impacted on the children’s lives. Specifically, the counties each had their own linkages to certain ‘outside’ places and economic sectors that intersected with other aspects of local geographic context such as physical location, the local school regime characteristics – including whether there were school boarding facilities, school lunches and private schools – and customary gender relations and divisions of labour. These factors affected the immediate setting within which families deliberated who should and could migrate and who should and could deliver childcare, which in turn influenced the children’s experiences of daily care and routines in and around school, and their expectations of parental support for their education.

The conclusions are drawn by identifying the range of possibilities contained in the current crisis. Positive and negative economic trends are documented. Populism is shown to be endemic in representative institutions. Deep social and cultural roots of the crisis are emphasized.