The Guns of August (1962)

2014 (my brief comment can be found on the LibraryThing page linked)
https://www.librarything.com/topic/172769#4777528 ( )

pg 88. May continue. Tired of Britain/FR POV.

A thorough account of the outbreak and first month of the Great War. This book introduces readers to the "who's who" of World War One, intimately through letters, journals and reminisces of their peers. ( )

There were a few people in the French and British leadership that understood what the Germans were doing, but they were ignored and the military leaders continued with their erroneous assumptions. They were wrong about:
* Where the Germans would attack.
* The amount of force that the Germans would muster.
* The deployment of their own troops.

Margaret McMullin, in the War that Ended Peace, says that historians will continue to debate the cause of WWI for generations. To me it looks quite simple. In General:
* Pride
* Greed
And more specifically:
* Germany’s desire to dominate the world.

I was astonished to learn of the inhumanity to civilians and civilization that so enraged the world against Germany. And then from other history we learn that Germany didn’t learn, but repeated similar atrocities in the Second World War with similar effect at alienating other countries against them. Is it really that hard to learn from history? ( )

At times difficult to read on the kindle without a map at hand to keep track of all the troop movements, but once I got a map the story was much more clear. I am very happy I finally read this as it not only tells the story of the first month of WWI, it also gives history of the major players and the events that led up to this war. ( )