The Origins of the First World War (Origins of Modern Wars)

Poetic coincidence, I began reading this book while waiting for a plane in Geneva Switzerland, home of the European UN, in the country nestled between France and Germany. Also as bit of humor TJ lent me this book as a pass through from one of his friends who studied it for a class. I mused at what he took note of versus what I marked as noteworthy. We had to have taken away two different verdicts. This is the third in my series of books where I am purposefully looking for answers to the cause of war. The first two, Rise and fall Of the Third Reich and Paris 1919, only threw clues and inferences. Also know I have a library of read material related to the subject but such material was not necessarily read to answer this single question. I was hoping, from the author's credentials as college professor and historian, to get something more absolute from this one. While I gained a lot of insight and can now start to draw my own conclusions I hate to say it but I am leaning towards the view of the French, which is always to be fearful of the German propensity for dominion. I am leaning with reservation because the French have yet to reach a level of national conscience that demonstrates peace for the right reason. This review will brush over the top of James Joll's work and I will make an attempt to connect dots and draw conclusions. Keep in mind I am on to reading on Bismarck and then the Crimean War, so I reserve the liberty to modify conclusions written herin. This book addresses seven different overarching factors starting with the July crisis in 1914 that may have attributed to the cause of WWI. Of the seven factors the mood of 1914 strikes me as the most intriguing. The mood involves the dynamics between the people and their leaders. The most essential aspect of the relationship is the timing of an action, which may be the result of decisions made long before the action. Power politics versus humanity with a civilized world order looming in the balance. While all the countries involved in WWI experienced these dynamics, Germany, albeit with a considerable peace movement in its midst, appears to have demonstrated the most tangible aptitude towards war. To see my complete review please use keword cigarroomofbooks

Joll's second edition of 'The Origins of the First World War' is without question one of the finest, most informative, and yet concise and easily readable treatises on the entire complicated topic. His analysis examines multiple factors influencing the war, and is admirably neutral, not displaying taint or bias (particularly that of Fischer), and provides one of the most excellent and succinct general analyses of the failure of the Second International that I have yet come across. Joll's bibliography is an excellent data mine and starting point for further research. Combined with Jannen's treatise on the diplomatic events of July 1914 ('The Lions of July') and Tuchman's classic 'The Guns of August', Joll's work is an essential element in any study of the origins of the single most important cataclysm in 20th century history.

The Origins of the First World War is a highly readable and enlightening tour of the world in mid-1914. Joll doesn't come at you from any particular political perspective and grants you access to all the arguments for the conflict. Nationalism, politics, military expansion, big business interests, imperialism along with conditions in each of the beligerents are examined in a free flowing easy style. Joll does a very nice job in demolishing the Marxist line that WW1 was the result of imperialism and big business interests. By the end you are left convinced that, while the German naval expansions of 1912 were ultimately to blame for the process that led to war, each country got involved for entirely different reasons. There are good maps which give are easy to understand. I do have some criticisms though. Each chapter is self contained but doesn't have any sub-headings or breaks. The editors could have spent a little time breaking up the text in each chapter to make the text a bit more readable. There isn't a great deal of attention to longer term history - such as the lingering impact left by the Crimean war and its peace treaty. But these are relatively minor quibbles about history writing that almost ranks as a work of art. Joll was a highly gifted historian.