World Power or Decline: The Controversy Over Germany's Aims in the First World War

Having not quite completed this work, I am hesitant to render some sort of verdict, but I feel that since I have placed this on my top 15 list that I should give it a go. This book presents more in depth historical scholarship on the First World War than almost any other; the concentration on Germany is laudable but the author cautions that his country's is only part of the full tale. However, I would say that once you have finished this book you will be able to ask some critical questions:1. How much was Fischer's thesis influenced by the holders of many of these Imperial records in 1960 - namely, the East German State? Could it be that only an occupied, divided Germany could be prevented from rising to threaten Europe again? I think the answer is no, there was no effort made by the East German authorities to influence Fischer's work - such an effort would be too difficult to conceal anyhow - especially for a Communist bureaucracy like the Stasi. 2. Did the Eastern European client states and the `Mitteleuropa' planned by leading German industrialists and Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg foreshadow 1942's (Hitler and Dr. Walter Funk's) New Order in Europe? Unquestionably, yes! AND NOW, this leads to a flowering of still more questions for Germans and other Europeans here today in the year 2001 - 3. Are the economic and political objectives sought by Chancellor Hollweg and the 2nd Reich still being pursued TO THIS DAY, if only by different means? Do those means include debt relief in exchange for GERMAN ownership of former Russian state owned firms... that own big chunks of the Donets Basin and southern Russia? What about NATO's expansion into Germany's former Baltic client states (Hanseatic League members?). Does the European Union represent a kinder, gentler version of the Kaiser's Central European Customs Union, as Niall Ferguson has suggested (implying that British resistance to such a system was and IS futile!). Now you know why you should read this book! It may be hard to get but it is definitely worth the price!...