The Lost History of 1914 by Jack Beatty
In The Lost History of 1914, Jack Beatty examines the First World War and its causes, testing against fresh evidence the long-dominant assumption that it was inevitable. 'Most books set in 1914 map the path leading to war,' Beatty writes, 'this one maps the multiple paths that led away from it.' Radically challenging the standard account of the war's outbreak, Beatty presents the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand not as the catalyst of a war that would have broken out in any event over some other crisis, but rather as 'its all-but unique precipitant'. Chronicling largely forgotten events faced by each of the belligerent countries in the months before the war started in August, Beatty shows how any one of them - a possible military coup in Germany; the threat to Britain of civil war in Ireland; the murder trial of the wife of the likely next premier of France, who sought détente with Germany - might have derailed the arrival of war. Europe's ruling classes, Beatty shows, were so haunted by fear of those below that they mistook democratisation for revolution, and were tempted to 'escape forward' into war to head it off. Beatty's deeply insightful book - as elegantly written as it is thought-provoking and probing - lights a lost world about to blow itself up in what George Kennan called 'the seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century'. The Lost History of 1914 is a highly original and challenging work of history.
Interesting and wide-ranging material.. a generous, stimulating book * Spectator *
[A] rich, textural context that allows us to see the war, and indeed all of 1914, fresh ... Beatty's book is an important contribution to our comprehension of a world bathed in misfortune and headed toward the senseless slaughter of nearly 20 million people * Boston Globe *
Thought-provoking, and often mordantly ironic * New Yorker *
[A] rich, textural context that allows us to see the war, and indeed all of 1914, fresh ... Beatty's book is an important contribution to our comprehension of a world bathed in misfortune and headed toward the senseless slaughter of nearly 20 million people * Boston Globe *
Thought-provoking, and often mordantly ironic * New Yorker *
Jack Beatty great up listening to his father's memories of serving in WWI as a sailor on a ship torpedoed in the Bay of Biscay. He is a news analyst for "On Point," the public affairs program on National Public Radio, and the author of The Rascal King: The Life and Times of James Michael Curley, Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America, and Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900. He lives in New Hampshire.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781408827963 |
| ISBN 10 | 1408827964 |
| Title | The Lost History of 1914 |
| Author | Jack Beatty |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Year published | 2012-02-02 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |