[virgil283]

"The assassination set off a chain reaction that, barely a month later, culminated in a continent at war."

In the U.S., history books always say something like that but don't specify exactly what was the cause.

However some English historians link the cause of the war to the rejection of monarchies, Seeing that the battle lines were between those with and those without, I would say that's right.

So why is this seldom mentioned in U.S. history books ?

[Colonel_Flagg]

Seeing that the battle lines were between those with and those without, I would say that's right.

Britain (monarchy), Italy (monarchy) and Russia (monarchy) joined by France and eventually the United States against Germany (monarchy) and Austria-Hungary (monarchy). Not quite following you here.

[Bigg Red]

MARK

[Don Corleone]

However some English historians link the cause of the war to the rejection of monarchies,

Not entirely true. There were multiple mutual defense treaties. Once one country began to observe its treaty obligations then others followed suit. Soon the cross purposes of the treaties became the catalyst of a global conflict. Monarchies tumbled but the treaties IMHO were the driving force.

[henkster]

There has been as many books written on the causes of World War 1 as the war itself. There were forces at work for decades before Princip fired his shots. Was it inevitable with or without Princip? Nobody can answer that. We do know his shots lit the powder keg.

Some very good books on the origin of the war:

Dreadnought by Robert Massie
The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War by by David Herrmann
Europe’s Last Summer by David Fromkin
Catyclysm, The First World War as Political Tragedy by David Stevenson
Twilight of the Hapsburgs by Alan Palmer
and the standard reference, The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

If there is blame to be placed on any one person, the current weight of historical opinion seems to place it squarely on the shoulders of Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of the German General Staff. He was the one person determined to take a local conflict and deliberately turn it into a world war.

[call meVeronica]

Because the communists don’t want our kids to have the ability to discern those issues as a catalyst for uprising. They have been manipulating our school books since before WW2.

[bert]

The 20th century was about chucking monarchies.

The outcome of the chucking was not uniform nor all good. The Russian chucking was hijacked as was the Chinese. The hijackers are out of power.

The Arabian chucking was stolen by the Brits and the Frogs. The current events are the reversion to an idealized, older more primitive rule. It will not be tolerated and will not prevail

[KosmicKitty]

Dan Carlin's hardcore History - How WWI started. ,p. It's a 3 hour podcast, but I highly recommend it. I highly recommend anything from Dan Carlin

http://www.dancarlin.com//disp.php/hharchive/Show-50---Blueprint-for-Armageddon-I/First%20World%20War-World%20War%20One-Great%20War