Decision for War 1914

This authoritative and comprehensive collection of essays examines the weeks of crisis management that led to the outbreak of world war in August 1914. Written from the perspective of each of the initial combatants (including Japan and the Ottoman Empire), the book provides an unrivaled analysis of the process of decision-making at the highest level in those critical weeks: * Why did the international crisis of July-August 1914 take the form and shape that it did? * What scope was there for a diplomatic solution short of war, and why was no such solution found? * What were the turning points, the decisive acts, within the crisis? * What caused it to develop along the lines that it did, and to have the result that it had? These are just some of the questions addressed by the contributors. Decision for War, 1914 presents important evidence, much of it only recently discovered, that casts new light on the actions of politicians and diplomats, and allows for a fuller understanding of why diplomacy failed in August 1914. These essays will be required reading as the latest word on the making of the First World War and an object-lesson for all those interested in the management, or mis-management, of international crises.

Keith Wilson