July, 1914 - Softcover

McMeekin, Sean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465060749 ISBN 13: 9780465060740

Publisher: Basic Books, 2014

Synopsis

A bold, gripping history of the first month of World War I
When an assassin gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in late June 1914, no one could have imagined the shocking bloodshed that would soon follow. Indeed, as award-winning historian Sean McMeekin reveals in July 1914, World War I might have been avoided entirely had it not been for the actions of a small group of statesmen in the month after the assassination. Whether they plotted for war or rode the whirlwind nearly blind, these men sought to capitalize on the fallout from Ferdinand's murder, unwittingly leading Europe toward the greatest cataclysm it had ever seen. A deeply-researched account of the genesis of World War I, July 1914 tells the gripping story of the month that changed the course of the twentieth century.

About this title

About the Author:

Sean McMeekin is a professor of history at Bard College. The award-winning author of several books, including The Russian Revolution andThe Ottoman Endgame, McMeekin lives in Red Hook, New York.

From Booklist:

McMeekin’s sally into the ever-burgeoning genre of WWI origin stories does not refrain, as does historian Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers, from apportioning blame for the outbreak of the war. This can be a tricky task for historians, complicated by documentary gaps about the July 1914 crisis, which indicate some of the power players involved destroyed or doctored evidence. Historian David Fromkin (Europe’s Last Summer, 2004) seized on this to indict Germany as the primary instigator of WWI. While hardly absolving Germany, McMeekin argues that the principal suspects are the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Sazonov, and the French president, Raymond Poincaré, both of whom also altered evidence during the same period. McMeekin incorporates diplomatic exchanges among the powers, which both acknowledge responsibility and attempt to saddle their opponents with the brunt of it, and grants the Entente powers better success than the Triple Alliance at the high-risk, not to say cynical, operation of assigning blame for starting a continental European war. Alluding to historical controversies, McMeekin ably delivers what readers demand from a WWI-origins history: a taut rendition of the July 1914 crisis. --Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0465060749
• ISBN 13: 9780465060740
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 481