![]() ![]() ![]() One valuable part of the book is that he goes into detail on the internal political maneuvers in each country and within the policymaking apparatus in each county. ![]() The author's argument is a complex one that I won't summarize here, but, while acknowledging that structural factors were significant, he definitely comes down on the side of those who say the war could have been avoided. Depending on the era, historians and other have tried to answer such questions as: who was guilty for causing the war, and was the war inevitable due to structural factors of the political environment (rigid military alliance structures and war planning, militarist attitudes in Germany and other countries,for example) or was it largely due to contingent factors (chance events, interplay of personal factors among key actors, etc), which would imply that it could have been avoided. As the author notes, the origin of the First World War is one of the most complex and written about issues in political and diplomatic history. The narrator, who is British, does a very good job, including in pronouncing all the various names, place and foreign phrases, which usually is the key stumbling block in books of this type. A more casual reader coming to the topic for the first time might be a bit overwhelmed by the length and detail. If you are really into political/diplomatic history, you will like this book. ![]() Very interesting take on a complex problem ![]()
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