The Guns of August (original 1962; edition 1984)

After reading "To End All Wars" picking up this classic added another layer of understanding to the mix. You saw John French's (BEF) hesitancy in minute detail. The review of the first month of WWI was like watching a huge mobile machine preprogrammed by years of history. This, though, is a history of the famous - not an in depth study of the soldiers and citizens who suffered through the insanity of petty "leaders". It was a long time ago, though not long enough to safely say mankind has evolved beyond this kind of behavior. ( )

Genia is practically giddy about it; Susanna gives it five stars, which is incredibly rare for her. I have Hochschild's newish WWI book on my schedule, but this is about the run-up rather than the war itself, so it should be a possibility.

Mostly good but a bit plodding at times. ( )

An excellent book. It presents the first month of the war and shows the inevitability of the outcome. It doesn't warm the reader towards Germans, but then again everyone else gets a serve ( )

A very detailed and surprisingly readable history of the early stages of the Great War, which would later become known as World War One.

Before reading this book, most of my knowledge of WW1 was based around the later stages when the war had got bogged down: the privations of the trenches, the horror and futility of some of the battles, and the massive loss of life. I also knew that the war was somehow triggered by the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand, but didn't really understand how or why.

This book gave me a much better understanding of the underlying reasons behind the war, and the tensions and alliances at the time which allowed a "damned foolish thing in the Balkans" to provide the spark that led to the war.

Some major themes in the book are the obstinacy in sticking to agreed plans and timetables, which often caused missed chances and indirectly led to huge loss of life; and the prescience of a few people like Bismarck and Kitchener. ( )