Discussions of the run-up to World War I are incredibly interesting . . . but I was a little reluctant to take on this one, in part thinking it might be redundant with The Guns of August and The Proud Tower.
And it was, to some extent.
But still - a useful review, lots of analysis was fresh to me. Good discussion about the situation in Germany, Russia, France, England, U.S., Austria-Hungary, Italy - the alliances that formed and re-formed, some of them rather unusual.
Two things that struck me most -
One: the way that the leaders of the various countries spoke of war as all but inevitable. Seems unbelievable. But it was so widely believed.
Two: the problems of identity politics (the various nationalities) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire - did that ever sound familiar! An ongoing problem - one certainty is that emphasizing nationality (or other identity) in resolving issues isn't going to end well.
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