1Blythewood
I just finished Sean McMeekin's book "July 1914: Countdown to War." It was refreshing to read a book wholly devoted to the immediate cause of the war. Too often, we get caught up in the myriad long-term causes of the Great War that we forget there was a spark in 1914 the set the whole situation ablaze. His research is stellar and his grasp of the material is superb. He does do a good job of helping to explain certain actions that were taken by reminding the reader what the individual did and did not know while making their decisions.
McMeekin, in the final analysis, distributes blame for the war pretty evenly. Germany comes in for harsh criticism for issuing the "blank cheque," which is characterised as foolish. The Russians actions are equally unsettling as the time-table shows they mobilised first (secretly) in order to beat the Germans. The Austrian are completely inept and are shown to have been eager for war but only against Serbia. Somehow thinking that Russia would just sit back. The French are shown to have clearly lied and misled the British, but the was aided by Sir Edward Grey's nearly complete disinterestedness in the continental crisis.
I was pleased to find an historian who does not accept the worn-out idea that the immediate causes of the Great War can and should be laid at the feet of Germany.
McMeekin, in the final analysis, distributes blame for the war pretty evenly. Germany comes in for harsh criticism for issuing the "blank cheque," which is characterised as foolish. The Russians actions are equally unsettling as the time-table shows they mobilised first (secretly) in order to beat the Germans. The Austrian are completely inept and are shown to have been eager for war but only against Serbia. Somehow thinking that Russia would just sit back. The French are shown to have clearly lied and misled the British, but the was aided by Sir Edward Grey's nearly complete disinterestedness in the continental crisis.
I was pleased to find an historian who does not accept the worn-out idea that the immediate causes of the Great War can and should be laid at the feet of Germany.
