Saturday, August 23, 2014

Book: The First World War -- August 23, 2014


This month we remember the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One, the Great War, the War to End All Wars.  I thought this was a good time to reread Hew Strachan's The First World War.  He wrote this book in conjunction with a television series.  Now I have to find his multi-volume set of books on the war. 

Strachan makes a point of talking about aspects of the war away from the Western Front.  He makes much of the Germans getting blamed for the war, but makes the strong point that the Austrians started it by declaring war on Serbia:
http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/WWI

He digs into the reasons various countries went to war. 

His conclusion is that it was not a war without purpose. 

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