Baltis

A couple of months ago I noticed that World War 1 will experience its various centenial moments over the next few years. It motivated me to get a few new books for Christmas and start reading. So far I have the war going. Started with:



I really enjoyed the book with its focus on the pre-war run and the initial invasion. I haven't yet read enough to know if the author's descriptions of the people were on target but I did feel good about getting a cross section of personalities from both sides. The explanations concerning Belgium's role in bringing on Britain. Men like Wilson and Churchill needed no prodding but the attack on Belgium was required to get the peace party on board with the program.

Also very interesting to see how the French and Germans existed on the verge of war for years. Certainly suggesting that war between those two was inevitable from the start.

It was also my first experience reading much about the Russians and the Dual Monarchy.

Anyway, this morning I am wondering about upcoming events. Does anyone know of planned memorials, etc. for the 100 year anniversary dates.

Ancientgeezer

BBC News - WWI centenary remembrance plans given £50m by government

constantine

The worst part about that book was that it ended at the end of August. I wanted her to continue and cover the whole war in the manner she had covered the first month...though I realize that would have been a bit much to ask.

For the months leading up to the war, I'd also recommend her other book which covers the quarter of a century before the war, the people, events, and underlying social currents that brought Europe into the modern world and made world war inevitable:

Baltis

Thanks I'll take a look at it sometime.

caldrail

They had, in some respects, been at loggerheads since ancient times. Significantly the french descended from pro-latin gauls, and the Germans from various antagonistic tribes. Julius Caesar talks about the conflict between them in his commentaries, and also it's interesting that 'German' is derived from the Roman term meaning 'true Celt'.

(That's not a Hitleresque point about racial superiority mind you, although clearly he did draw on such inspiration to justify his views, but simply an observation the Romans made. They did after all remark in the sources that the Gauls were the people that emulated them most closely).

Toomtabard

Baltis-John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the U.S.A. whose life was ended abruptly in your Lone Star state on Friday November 22, 1963, in Dallas,Tx, referred to Tuchman's book ''The Guns of August'' during the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis.
President Kennedy had recently read Tuchman's book and he told his advisers -psarticularly the nuclear Hawks- that he wanted to avoid the precipitate rush to war that had happened in Europe in July-August 1914. as desiderated by Tuchman in her book,''THE GUNS OF AUGUST''.

Baltis

What a cool story for an author to have about her book. One of the ideas I got from the book is that both the Germans and the French not only considered the war to be inevitable, they also both seemed to want it.