![]() ![]() The first is straightforward enough, but essential to understand because it drove a wedge between a traditional sea power and a wannabe-tragically, for no logical reason. Three areas are worth highlighting here: the British-German naval race, pre-war turbulence in the Balkans, and Germany’s “blank check” to Austria-Hungary after the assassination in Sarajevo. ![]() On the civilian leadership side, the recurring theme seems to have been one of ineptitude and complacency the notion that no political crisis could possibly come to war. Unfortunately for the millions killed, the uniformed crowd held sway. When it comes to the players, MacMillan goes beyond the usual suspects sitting on thrones, pacing the halls of government, or wearing uniforms she includes peace activists, financiers, even anarchists. In the process, she provides all the background the reader could possibly hope for, with a style that makes the journey absolutely enjoyable. ![]() In her introduction to a book that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Barbara Tuchman’s landmark The Guns of August, Margaret MacMillan asks “what made 1914 so different” that European leaders were unable to back away from the precipice of general war, as they had so many times in the years following Napoleon’s exile? Unlike Tuchman’s focus on a single month, MacMillan takes the reader back several decades to identify the people, events, and decisions that led to the outbreak of war in 1914. ![]()
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