The war that ended peace: The road to 1914 – by British historian Margaret MacMillan.
Theodore Roosevelt described World War I as ‘That great black tornado.” It tore through Europe in August 1914 and both sides expected it to be a short war – however, it raged on for four years.
Margaret MacMillan notes that the Great War marked a turning point in modern history, which shattered hopeful views of human progress and left a sense of waste and loss. How could such a catastrophe have taken place? Or, as MacMillan questions, why did peace fail?
MacMillan is considered to be one of the most respected and recognised historians in the English speaking world. Her attention to detail when relaying personal anecdote and her easily accessible writing style will carry you through the complicated story – beginning with the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, she unveils the technological and political changes, human meddling and national choices that led Europe into World War 1.
MacMillan reveals that Kaiser Wilhelm did not start World War I for imperial gain, but rather that Germany felt hedged in by the alliances of Russia, Britain and France. This all began in 1905 when the Kaiser tried to seize Morocco, then the 1908 failed Bosnian crisis and lastly the 1912-13 Balkans bloody rehearsals, all edged Germany’s opponents into a tight alliance.
MacMillan demonstrates not only how individuals, such as British parliamentarians, Serbian terrorists, Hapsburg dunderheads, the Kaiser and his generals added their own agenda to the war. But she concludes that cultures and institutions, such as the social Darwinism, absolutist governments and national pride also played a role. In the end, MacMillan blames complacency, a disease which is still prevalent in the world 100 years later.
“And if we want to point fingers from the twenty-first century, we can accuse those who took Europe into war of two things. First, a failure of imagination in not seeing how destructive such a conflict would be, and second, their lack of courage to stand up to those who said there was no choice left but to go to war. There are always choices,” says MacMillan
MacMillan effectively provides the reader with a sense of the complexities of topics less frequently reviewed by Anglophone historiography.
The war that ended peace: The road to 1914 – was named one of the best books of the year by Bloomberg Businessweek, the New York Times Book Review, the Christian Science Monitor, the Economist and the Globe and Mail.
“Magnificent . . . The War That Ended Peace will certainly rank among the best books of the centennial crop.”—The Economist
MacMillan’s reading of the past is set to remind us that war was not inevitable and that peace could have prevailed. If it weren’t for the unbending mobilization plans, unfortunate brinkmanship, substandard actions and failure of diplomacy in those final months before the war started, we would not be haunted by the 9 million dead soldiers. If we choose to forget that lesson, future wars are inevitable.
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