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Christopher Clark

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 Hardcover – Unabridged, March 19, 2013

by Christopher Clark (Author)

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One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the Year

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History)

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 is historian Christopher Clark’s riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I.

Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself, but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.

Clark traces the paths to war in a minute-by-minute, action-packed narrative that cuts between the key decision centers in Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, and Belgrade, and examines the decades of history that informed the events of 1914 and details the mutual misunderstandings and unintended signals that drove the crisis forward in a few short weeks.

Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers is a dramatic and authoritative chronicle of Europe’s descent into a war that tore the world apart.

Print length

736 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper
Publication date

March 19, 2013
Dimensions

6 x 1.72 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

006114665X
ISBN-13

978-0061146657
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Popular Highlights in this book

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The First World War was the Third Balkan War before it became the First World War.
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When the Russian government refused to rescind its mobilization order, Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August 1914.
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The targeting of the archduke thus exemplified one abiding strand in the logic of terrorist movements, namely that reformers and moderates are more to be feared than outright enemies and hardliners.
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The immense documentation of the origin of WWI, remarks historian Clark, can be marshaled to support a range of theses, and it but weakly sustains, in the tenor of his intricate analysis, the temptation to assign exclusive blame for the cataclysm to a particular country. Dispensing with a thesis, Clark interprets evidence in terms of the character, internal political heft, and external geopolitical perception and intention of a political actor. In other words, Clark centralizes human agency and, especially, human foibles of misperception, illogic, and emotion in his narrative. Touching on every significant figure in European diplomacy in the decade leading to August 1914, Clark underscores an entanglement of an official’s fluctuating domestic power with a foreign interlocutor’s appreciation, accurate or not, of that official’s ability to make something stick in foreign policy. As narrative background, Clark choreographs the alliances and series of crises that preceded the one provoked by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, but he focuses on the men whose risk-taking mistakes detonated WWI. Emphasizing the human element, Clark bestows a tragic sensibility on a magisterial work of scholarship. --Gilbert Taylor

Review

“An important book. . . . One of the most impressive and stimulating studies of the period ever published.” -- Max Hastings, The Sunday Times

“Excellent. . . . The book is stylishly written as well as superb scholarship. No analysis of the origins of the First World War will henceforth be able to bypass this magisterial work.” -- Ian Kershaw, BBC History

“The most readable account of the origins of the First World War since Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August. The difference is that The Sleepwalkers is a lovingly researched work of the highest scholarship.” -- Niall Ferguson

“This compelling examination of the causes of World War I deserves to become the new standard one-volume account of that contentious subject.” -- Foreign Affairs

“Clark is a masterly historian. . . . His account vividly reconstructs key decision points while deftly sketching the context driving them. . . . A magisterial work.” -- The Wall Street Journal

“A monumental new volume. . . . Revelatory, even revolutionary. . . . Clark has done a masterful job explaining the inexplicable.” -- The Boston Globe

“Easily the best book ever written on the subject. . . . A work of rare beauty that combines meticulous research with sensitive analysis and elegant prose. The enormous weight of its quality inspires amazement and awe. . . . Academics should take note: Good history can still be a good story.” -- The Washington Post

“A meticulously researched, superbly organized, and handsomely written account.” -- MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History

“Superb. . . . One of the great mysteries of history is how Europe’s great powers could have stumbled into World War I. . . . This is the single best book I have read on this important topic.” -- Fareed Zakaria

“A thoroughly comprehensive and highly readable account. . . . The brilliance of Clark’s far-reaching history is that we are able to discern how the past was genuinely prologue. . . . In conception, steely scholarship and piercing insights, his book is a masterpiece.” -- Harold Evans, The New York Times Book Review

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper; 1st Printing edition (March 19, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 736 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 006114665X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061146657
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.72 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #382,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #700 in World War I History (Books)
- #2,663 in Great Britain History (Books)
- #3,972 in World War II History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
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Christopher Clark

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Christopher Clark is a professor of modern European history and a fellow of St. Catharine's College at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947, among other books.

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Cody Carlson

A Bold Argument; An Engaging Analysis- How Did World War I Begin?

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2018

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I just read Christopher Clarks' "The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914" for a PhD course I'm taking on World War I. Clark's thesis is very interesting, and flies in the face of the conventional narrative surrounding the beginning of World War I- namely that World War I was primarily Germany's fault. Rather than absolve Germany, Clark's assertion is that all the players in World War I were all more or less culpable to some degree. But this is a simplistic summation of Clark's complex argument. Indeed, he states that trying to assign blame is beside the point if one really wants to understand how World War I began. Clark argues that World War I was not foreordained, but was the product of many different people making flawed decisions with incomplete information and/or significantly biased dispositions. For instance, Clark notes that the French and the Russians were so intent in seeing that Austria-Hungary gained no advantage from the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo that they failed to consider the Dual Monarchy's just demands and legitimate grievances against Serbia. Further, Clark writes that Germany "punched beneath its weight" in diplomatic matters prior to World War I. Essentially it was a great power, but was denied the fruits that Britain and France enjoyed, namely in the colonial sphere, because they feared it becoming even more powerful. Therefore Germany, in an attempt not to start a war, reluctantly accepted a subordinate position in the European balance of power.

It is an argument that I'm not sure I entirely agree with, but it is a fascinating new perspective. Clark is generally correct in his treating the road to war as the complex set of mechanisms that it was. He is equally correct in giving weight to the various voices and interest groups throughout Europe, and how their perceptions helped set the Great Powers on a collision course. Clark does not treat each nation as a monolithic entity, but rather considers the roles of the monarchs, the ministers, the press, and the people in each state. The book also begins with the grizzly murders of the king and queen of Serbia in 1903, and how that event shifted the Balkan nation from a pro-Austrian position to a pro-Russian alignment. Clark also notes just how modern in so many ways the events of 1914 were. Gavrillo Princep, the Serbian assassin, was little different from modern suicide bombers; Serbia itself was not so different from other states that sponsor terrorism today; and for all of our technology it is remarkable how little international diplomacy has changed. I would be reluctant to recommend "The Sleepwalkers" to undergraduates, or people without much knowledge on the subject looking to "smarten up" on it. This is a deeply complex book that assumes the reader already has a basic understanding of the issues, personalities, and systems at work in 1914.

All told, this book is a wonderful analysis of the beginning of World War I, and offers much food for thought on an event that has been debated on for over a century.

85 people found this helpful

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Kenneth C. Mahieu

Excellent read for history buffs, EVERY option is explored

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2016

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In the very last sentence of the book, Christopher Clark explains his title: "In this sense, the protagonists of 1914 were sleepwalkers, watchful but unseeing.....blind to the reality of the horror they were about to bring into the world." Note that I have abridged this solitary sentence. I did not find Clark to be as readable as I would have liked for a 562 page history of the causes of WWl; hence four stars. I had read Tuchman's "Guns of August" just a few weeks earlier, and came away from that book overwhelmed by the events of the first month of the War, yet unclear as to why it happened. In hindsight, I would have preferred reading Clark's book first. Later this year I intend to read "With Our Backs to the Wall" (about the War during 1918, following three years of trench battles), and finally "Paris 1919".

The causes and events leading to the outbreak of the War are indeed complex. Many countries were involved, major players (Germany, Russia, France, England, Austria-Hungary) and less major ones (the Balkans, Belgium, Italy, Turkey). European Wars were not a rarity, though they generally lasted for less than a year, sometimes only a few months. Many countries were ruled by monarchies, and the key player of the moment could be the king, prime minister, Foreign Minister, War Minister or an Ambassador - or some combination. And in some cases, the scorecard kept changing, rapidly. There were ententes, detentes, demarches, and inceptions. And Alliances. Most of the key players were involved in at least two alliances; I was particularly struck by how tenuous some of these alliances were as they became uncomfortable for some participants as events changed. I was amazed how dismissive government officials could be of time honored agreements that suddenly dictate unforeseen and costly entanglements. So part of the chess game became guessing how truly committed potential opponents (and partners) would be to alliances, formal and less formal.

Most of us know the simple answer to the question posed here - the assassination of Austria's Archduke. But where? by whom? and where was he from? But most importantly why? Clark begins his story with a few paragraphs on the event but then dives backwards into events leading up to that moment. 367 pages later, we now are treated to a more detailed, minute by minute account of the assassination, in reality a quasi black-comedy horror story. And then the chess game continues but at a much faster pace - incredibly WWl will be well underway in only 6 weeks. A war which will last four years and take twenty million lives. There were many moments in those six weeks when "if only" had truly occurred, war could have been paused at a minimum. Or perhaps limited to a local affair instead of a global one. Clark details all the reasons (and then some) why it did happen. Recommended.

136 people found this helpful

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JP

Average readers(like me) beware......

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2018

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The author covers a lot of information and I commend him, but it is a chore to read. The book covers from about the 1880’s on up until the troop mobilizations and declarations of war in 1914. This book is hard to follow, it’s really tough to establish a correct chain of events throughout the timeline. At least sections 1 & 2 felt that way to me. Section 3 was better only because there seems to be better historical documentation of the events of 1914.

I wanted to learn more about each country’s history and motivations that lead to the Great War but I don’t think this book does the job. There might be something else out there, I would suggest looking for that first.

32 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

rob crawford

The intricate path to catastrophe

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2018

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The title, The Sleepwalkers, says it all. I have never understood WHY the great powers of Europe went to war in 1914 and after reading this, it is clear that they did not know either. This book is about HOW it happened, in a huge narrative on all the contributing players, from the tubercular assassin of Archduke Ferdinand to the ineffectual Tsar in Russia and the erratic Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, to struggling bureaucrats in the French and British Foreign Ministries. It is agonizingly fascinating and above all, as Clark keeps reminding the reader, it didn't have to turn out the way it did; the what-ifs are so numerous and so possible that the Great War might have been avoided. After all, even the major powers persisted right up to the end in thinking that the crisis could be resolved in weeks if not a few months.

The grenade pin for all this seems to have been Serbia, a brutal backwater and recently established kingdom in the Balkans. As the Ottomans are beaten back, the impoverished societies that remained began to fight each other for territory, irredentist ambitions, and proto-fascist nationalism. Because Austria-Hungary was involved in Croatia, the Serbs became a proxy for Russia as it pursued an ill-defined pan-slavism and harassed its Habsburg rivals. How did Serbia become such a crucial player?

With the exception of republican France, all the involved European powers were monarchies, ranging from a constitutional one in the UK, through the semi-autocracies in Austria-Hungary and Germany, to full blown despotism in Russia. In their evolving modalities, the foreign policy apparati were in chaotic states, with the sovereign in nominal control while bureaucrats and aristocrats fought for influence; in theory, the executives should issue official orders and at best, play the role of balancing all the competing interests, but none of them seemed up to that task. As a result, policy making was an opaque process in which aims, signals, and actions were impossible to discern clearly; this increased uncertainty and led the actors into decisions that further aggravated the dangers and uncertainties. Moreover, there was no neutral power or multi-lateral diplomatic body that could mediate, provide a space to openly discuss the situation, or de-escalate situations in which military courses of action had been initiated. It was like a massive Rube Goldberg machine with ten entry points, each player trying to balance complex equations of military stability, prestige, ego, societal and economic needs, and the like. One might also picture the situation as a teetering boulder atop a mountain with all manner of actors throwing rocks at it and at each other.

Another unfortunate development was the diplomatic configuration that had emerged with secret protocols, vague promises, and volatile pronouncements. On the one hand, there was the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy), which pledged mutual defense. On the other hand, there was the looser Entente, whereby Britain, France, and Russia pledged to defend each other if attacked or in the event that any member of the Triple Alliance fully mobilized its military. The end result was extreme polarization, pitting central European powers against vast colonial Empires. Their principal playing field consisted of the territories opening up with the Turkish retreat and peripheral areas such as Serbia and Bulgaria (they were intermittently at war); the former was allied to Russia, the latter to Austria-Hungary. There were so many flash points, with multiple crises resolved, that it all seemed grist for the mill.

The concerns of each country are examined in detail. Not only are there fascinating mini-biographies, but the geopolitical situations are explained and subtly interpreted. Beyond the obvious, such as Germany's fear of a war on two fronts, there are many surprises here. The cumbersome dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, for example, was by no means doomed in Clark's view, but an evolving and stabilizing force; even Archduke Ferdinand comes off as a man of great potential in spite of his unpopularity. Perhaps this kind of detail is of interest only for history buffs, but I learned an immense amount from these analyses.

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo was the last straw, the pebble that loosed the boulder and sent it to smash everything. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and issued demands for an investigation and humiliating surrenders of sovereignty. Russia backed Serbia, emboldening it to resist, and began to mobilize its troops, triggering Germany to mobilize in support of Austria-Hungary. France of course supported Russia and, after some hemming and hawing, the UK committed itself to the defense of France, particularly if neutral Belgium was attacked by Germany. Although in the weeks between the assassination and war's outbreak, there were many opportunities where mobilizations were ordered halted so that talks could begin, once in motion the military machines appeared unstoppable. Kaiser Wilhelm even cut short his summer vacation to slow things down, but his orders were ignored or lost. The book ends on the eve of the war.

This is one of the most satisfying reading experiences I have had in years. Clark is a great writer, finding the right biographical detail or quote to support a point, always with extremely human sensibilities and empathy. He questions many accepted conventions, which are sure to be controversial but highly stimulating. I cannot recommend this book more highly or more enthusiastically. If the book occasionally gets bogged down or lost in detail, it always returns to a powerful narrative, whose momentum builds over nearly 600 pages. This is a masterpiece.

35 people found this helpful

DennisF

Not for me!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2019

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This book is well-recommended by an array of international historians and by critics for major newspapers. Having read “The War that ended Peace” by Margaret MacMillan, I was intrigued to discover if another historian covering the same ground, would generate some new ideas and insights about how the Great Powers went to war in 1914. The book begins with the grim murder of the King of Serbia in 1904 and soon into the text, the author emphasises that he will try to explain how the war started but not why it started; I thought that was an interesting perspective. However, flying in the face of international experts, I think there is so much immense detail therein that, frankly, it is verbose and dull. Indeed, detail after "minutiae" detail tended to overwhelm the events that should have been highlighted. I found it a real effort to read (and stay awake) to the extent that I reached page 488 and then gave up, skipped to the conclusions but didn’t really gain any new insight about the origins of world war I. For me, this book is not in the same league as the excellent MacMillan tome, and if you are a layman like me, but still want to read it, then I suggest you borrow it from someone else.

27 people found this helpful

David S

Brilliantly written … poor history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2021

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Okay, i’ve bitten my fingers long enough over this one. I do have an MA in Britain and the First World War, I’m pursuing a PhD on the subject and I’ve read this and maybe another 20-30 on the origins of the war. In other words, I think I have a decent understanding. This book is not ‘seminal’, it’s actually simply misleading historically. It picks and chooses its facts selectively which is very dangerous. The world did not ‘sleepwalk’ into the war, military and diplomatic documents prove this. Germany wanted war and would have one. i have no doubt that Clark knows this too. This is a brilliant read but if you REALLY want to read how the war started read Annika Mombauer’s excellent books instead. You probably won’t see Max Hastings praising her work which possibly says it all.

11 people found this helpful

BobH

Mud-Wrestling

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2014

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‘The Sleepwalkers’ (2012) by Christopher Clark was recommended to me and I soon realised why it has become a controversial analysis of the origins of the ‘war to end all wars’. The title reminded me of Hitler’s declaration that‘I go the way that Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker’ (14 March 1936), stated days after the ‘triumph’ of the re-occupation of the Rhineland. ‘Providence’ was to lead him into the mess, carnage and disaster of World War II. The same might be said for the principal personalities in this book.

President Wilson’s 14 Points (Jan 1918) – an exercise in hindsight or ‘shutting the stable-door’!– included ‘Open covenants openly arrived at’ and Clark expertly details the’ secret diplomacy’ going on both WITHIN and between governments. However, he doesn’t mention espionage (e.g. MI5 began in Oct 1909, FBI in 1908 and France reactivated the Deuxieme Bureau in 1907) which often revealed OR distorted such activity.
Clark is able to sum up whole problem areas in a sentence or two. Here are some examples. ‘The mismatch between national visions and ethnic realities made it highly likely that the realisation of Serbian objectives would be a violent process’ (P.26). ‘The extreme inconsistency of the Kaiser’s utterances makes an assessment of their impact difficult’ (P.179). Analysing the origins of World War 1 requires ‘understanding sustained rapid-fire interactions between executive structures with a relatively poor understanding of each other’s intentions, operating with low levels of confidence and trust (even within the respective alliances) and with high levels of hostility and paranoia’ (P.240). The July 1914 crisis (to generalise from one analysis) involved a ‘panicky lack of focus, the preference for swollen metaphors over clear formulations, the employment of histrionic devices to achieve an emotional effect, the juxtaposition of different perspectives in the absence of a unifying meta-narrative’ (P. 401).
Clark’s analysis of the last weeks of peace is masterly As regards Austrian diplomacy he writes: ‘The Austrians resembled hedgehogs scurrying across a highway with their eyes averted from the rushing traffic’ (P.429) – e.g. far from Germany’s ‘blank cheque’ revealing a masterminding of events, due to suspected links the Austrians withheld their ultimatum from Berlin till 22 July (days after it was known in Paris and St. Petersburg). Delivery was delayed till French and Russians leaders were no longer together: the Serbs, however, delayed replying till after they were sure of Russia. The Serbian response was certainly not the surrender usually described and ‘may have have looked messy, but it was a masterpiece of diplomatic equivocation...... a subtle cocktail of acceptances, conditional acceptances, evasions and rejections....the text was perfectly pitched to convey the tone of voice of reasonable statesmen in a condition of sincere puzzlement, struggling to make sense of outrageous and unacceptable demands... a highly perfumed rejection on most points’ (PP 464-466). Russia was excited at the prospect of achieving long-held ambitions, with exaggerated self-confidence and misread the effect of mobilisation, In Britain, Grey ‘plotted, as so often before, a meandering path that steered clear of straightforward commitments’(P. 491) and both country and government were divided. France faced a similar state of indecision involving ‘the complex triangulations of a French policy that had to mediate between the hard imperatives of the Franco-Russian Alliance and the fuzzy logic of the Anglo-French Entente’ (P. 506). Regarding Germany, Clark insists nothing ‘suggests that they viewed the crisis as the welcome opportunity to set in train a long-laid plan to unleash a preventive war on Germany’s neighbours’(P.521). Perhaps not, but they didn’t have any Plan B alternative to the Schlieffen Plan etc.as Germany was swept along in the general rush into war. The Kaiser MAY have believed Britain would stay neutral if Germany didn’t attack France, but did anyone really believe Germany could risk just concentrating on the eastern front? Throughout Europe there was ‘reflex deflection of responsibility that placed the onus of deciding between peace and war on another’s shoulders’ (P.537). For several days Britain threatened not to back France. Older studies stress the balance of power in Europe threatened by Germany but revisionist works concentrate of British GLOBAL challenged by an expanding Russia.. ‘British intervention on the side of the Entente offered a means BOTH of appeasing and tethering Russia AND of opposing and containing Germany’ (P547) is Clark’s suggestion on the topic. Personally I think Clark gives too much weight to British desire to aid ‘gallant little Belgium’ and it was rather a question of the ‘monster’ of European diplomacy etc. out-running its Frankenstein ‘masters’.
The book is far more ‘even-handed’ than several studies I’ve used and so no surprise that it’s proved very popular in Germany. However, Clark sometimes may be trying too hard. In 1914 Germany agreed to bail out a bankrupt Bulgaria but Clark insists ‘This did not reflect some long-laid plan to draw Bulgaria into the clutches of the Triple Alliance’ (P.277). They also offered loans to the Serbs. Then the French (backed by Russia) offered Bulgaria a loan. Clark insists, “.... the plan was to persuade the Bulgarians to accept the loan and then pressure them at a later gate into changing their government’ (P.277). The loan was rejected. Clark cites evidence for the French plan but none for his comment re’ the Triple Alliance. I think BOTH groups were trying to recruit / neutralise BOTH Balkan states – just like later policies by the USA and USSR (e.g. Egypt 1955).
So what don’t I like in the book? There’s no bibliography. Although the extensive end-notes quote numerous sources, the MAJOR authorities used should be listed to make clearer the APPROACH to the subject and so reveal its strengths and limitations. One critic has referred to the absence of treatment of the OPPOSITION to war (e.g. Lenin) or indeed the ‘Marxist interpretation’ (not confined to Communists) of the approach to war. Surprisingly there is no mention ANYWHERE of Jean Jaurès, leading French socialist and advocate of peace, who was assassinated (31 July), as a ‘traitor’ just as France slipped into war, undermining the opposition campaign. The planned strikes throughout Europe to stop the war proved abortive. The author largely ignores the growth of technology (e.g. radio, telegraphy) which too rapidly exposed shortcomings (e.g. during the last month of peace). He also overlooks the GENERAL rise in prosperity and aspirations among the masses which increased pressure on the ‘movers and shakers’. Perhaps too much attention is given to the ‘jitter-bugging’ of tiny groups involved in Balkan politics. To evoke a metaphor, in essence they were the cracks and leaks in the piping, it was the nature of the contents of the plumbing system that proved the danger. Even so, I’m still awarding 5 stars to what is the best analysis of the subject I’ve ever come across – and for introducing me to a lot of historical data I didn’t know!
Why my title? During the decades spanning 1900 international diplomacy had become a sea of mud, created out of improving technology, growing aspirations and competition for resources. As Clark often indicates situations had become beyond the abilities of those expected to control them. Unfortunately, I don’t think international diplomacy is in any better condition today.

21 people found this helpful

Mr. J. Cowell

Excellent book on the drift to World War 1

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2019

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Shows in great detail how statesmen and diplomats sleep-walked into one of the worst wars of all time. Lots of insights into the personalities and causes of the move to war, and how alliances tied countries into the schemes of other countries to fight, rather than solve problems by mediation, discussion and other sensible methods. Beautifully written by an outstanding historian, Sir Christopher Clark.

3 people found this helpful

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