The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914

[Condor]

I really want to read this book. Keep waiting for a copy of it to show up in the local used book store.

[Granite_State]

I really want to read this book. Keep waiting for a copy of it to show up in the local used book store.

If you're holding out on Amazon you're a better man than I.

I think there was another recent book that served as a counterpoint to Clark's, maybe Max Hastings'.

[Firn]

I have not even opened the packaged which was delivered weeks ago. Too much work and my free reading time gets almost all spent on the Ukrainian crisis...

[davidbfpo]

A fascinating, if quirky piece of history has come to light, prompted by the centenary:

A note which has remained in private hands for a century details a previously undocumented meeting between George V and his Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, on the eve of the First World War.

The King, mindful of his position as a constitutional monarch, made no public declarations about the situation in Europe in the lead-up to the conflict.

But in the newly-disclosed meeting, the King informed Sir Edward it was "absolutely essential" Britain go to war in order to prevent Germany from achieving “complete domination of this country”

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/w...World-War.html

[davidbfpo]

A long article on a new(ish) book which starts with:

A new book throws startling new light on how Britain went to war in 1914, and how it published a deceptive document to try and explain the decision: what the author calls “a dodgy dossier”.

The day after Britain declared war on Germany on Tuesday, 4th August 1914, the Liberal government decided to issue a White Paper justifying its decision. In his new book, “The Darkest Days: The Truth Behind Britain’s Rush To War, 1914” (published by Verso), Australian historian Douglas Newton argues passionately that an interventionist minority in the Asquith cabinet—Prime Minister Asquith himself, Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, Lord Chancellor and former War Minister Lord Haldane, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Charles Masterman—manoeuvred the large neutralist majority into siding with Russia and France against Germany as the crisis in European diplomacy reached its climax, five weeks after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28th June 1914.

Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkin...dodgy-dossier?

For the book (USA):http://www.amazon.com/Darkest-Days-T...To+War%2C+1914

For the book (UK):http://www.amazon.co.uk/Darkest-Days...To+War%2C+1914

[davidbfpo]

Professor Adam Roberts, of Oxford University, spoke at a conference in July 2014 @ Sarajevo and last week at a different conference @ St. Andrews, on terrorism, he referred to it. He draws uncanny parallels between the policy of Austria-Hungary towards Serbia, after the assassination and the demands made - which ended in an 'anti-terrorist operation'. And today the dangers of a repeat causing a wider war.

Link: http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/studio/multimedia/20140627e/index.html#section-30589

Author's bio:http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/index.p...m-roberts.html

[davidbfpo]

Professor John Schindler wrote this column a year ago:http://20committee.com/2014/06/27/28...assassination/

A poignant reminder even today:

Despite its infamy, the Sarajevo assassination remains shrouded in some mystery, and that’s what I seek to cut through today.