July 1914 : Countdown to War

from RidgewayGirl

This book is a factual and somewhat dry account of the assassination of the archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28th, 1914 and the days following, up until August 4th, when Germany invaded Belgium and Britain declared war on Germany. Sean McMeekin spends the majority of the book providing a moment b...

from douboy50

There are a few fine reviews preceding this one. So I will not try to recap the book (again). However, I have read several works on the origins of the First World War. This one has more in depth information on the day to day internal political and external diplomatic activity leading up the decla...

from kaitanya64

I am rating this book highly and then I'm going to admit that I haven't actually finished reading it. The information seems interesting, important and logically organized, but it is just way over my head. I can't concentrate well enough to remember all the unfamiliar names and places and keep it ...

from BrianEWilliams

This is an intriguing day by day account of events from the murder of the Austrian Archduke on June 28, 1914 through to August 3, 1914, when WW1 officially started. There was a lot of foolish and reckless behavior. Nobody seems to have liked the murdered archduke (except for Kaiser Wilhelm) and h...

from Randyflycaster

Fascinating and well-researched account of how and why the major powers rushed to war in 1914. This book, filled with characters that come to life, is a real eye opener. Some - myself included - will find it depressing as Mr. McMeekin shows how much of history is random, and how therefore the Gre...