The Road to War

You Tube ^ | 2014 | BBC

[Fai Mao]

A rather good history of the origins and causes of World war I

The Road to War

[nopardons]

Sorry...I watched a bit of this and its BULLSHIT!

This is revisionist history of the worst kind and biased! Whomever p0ut this together, knows little to NOTHING of Hungarian history and less about how the Hungarians were treated vis-a-vis those whom are being called "Slavs" and just WHO were actually Slavs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire!

For a MUCH better perspective, I suggest reading DREADNOUGHT, by Robert K. Massie and should anyone want a good read re the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, pre WW I, FRmail me and I'll give you a list AND some anecdotal, eyewitness history, from a VERY reliable source.

[newnhdad]

Dreadnought is a fantastic read.. My wife has recently become interested in the “war to end all wars” and I keep placing this behemoth of a book next to her phone..

[Califreak]

I’ve read all of his books on the Russian royals.

Very good reading.

[spankalib]

Loved Nicholas and Alexandra, I’ll get Dreadnought for sure.

Napolitano gives Wilson a rather scathing critique in Theodore and Woodrow.

[Maine Mariner]

Massie also wrote Castles of Steel about the naval battles of WWI (not just Jutland), an excellent book.

[mewzilla]

Dreadnought is excellent! Also worth the read...

George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I

[Mr Radical]

I wouldn’t trust anything from the BBC (British Brainwashing Corporation) without a bucket-load of salt.

[Buttons12]

“Dreadnought.”

I love that book! One of very few I don’t mind re-reading. Open it anywhere and I’m drawn right in.

[henkster]

Massie’s “Dreadnought” is an excellent book. Other pretty good reads on the origins of World War 1 are David Hermmann’s “The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War” and David Fromkin’s “Europe’s Last Summer.”

Both of them pretty much lay the blame for the war at the feet of Helmuth Moltke, as he saw the war as Germany’s last chance to dominate Europe before the Franco-Russian allies surpassed Germany and a declining Austria-Hungary.

[nopardons]

I love that book too and it is, as far as I know, one of, if not THE best books on pre-WWI Europe. Haven't read it since it first came out, but I have an exceptional memory and remember a great deal of the book. Perhaps it's time I reread it, though.

BETWEEN THE WARS is another great book, that you and/or your wife might be interested in.

[nopardons]

I too have his books on the Russian royals. :-)

[nopardons]

Wilson was one of THE worst of the worst pResidents in ALL of American history! I have detested him since high school, when I was first taught about him and his presidency in depth! That's when schools used to teach factual history. ;^)

For THE best view of the curse he managed to help bring upon the entire world, for all of the 20th century and well into this one, do yourself a BIG favor and read : PARIS 1919, by Margaret MacMillan.

[nopardons]

After this discussion, I’m going to reread it myself.

[spankalib]

Thanks for the recommendation, though I need to be careful of my blood pressure nowadays, hehe..

[nopardons]

Since there is absolutely NOTHING you nor I can do to change history, please read PARIS 1919 and remain calm! :-)

It's a fascinating book, connects SO many dots, that you'll be shocked, but oh SO much better informed after you've read and digested it all.

[Bratch]

From Library Journal

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This is a case study in the limits of a particular style of history.

Massie's previous biographically focused narrative histories, Peter the Great ( LJ 9/15/80) and Nicholas and Alexandra ( LJ 7/67), succeeded intellectually because of the nature of autocratic decision making. The British and German systems were too complicated and too democratic to respond to a biographical focus.

This massive volume, while reminding us of the importance of individuals in decision making, nevertheless ultimately misrepresents the Anglo-German rivalry as essentially a conflict of personalities. The naval race, purportedly the book's focus, is submerged in a sea of anecdotes about ministers and monarchs. Many are interesting; few are original. Moreover, neither Massie's text nor his bibliography shows significant traces of the immense body of German-language scholarship on this complex subject. Long and intricate for the general reader, this is incomplete for the serious student.

Paul Kennedy's equally massive The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism (Allen & Unwin, 1980) is no less well written and provides a much more comprehensive account. BOMC main selection.
 

- D.E. Showalter, U.S. Air Force Acad., Colorado Springs

Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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