By clicking “Accept,” you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on your device as set forth in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. Please note that certain cookies are essential for this website to function properly and do not require user consent to be deployed.
July 1914
Countdown to War
Contributors
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Apr 29, 2014
- Page Count
- 480 pages
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- ISBN-13
- 9780465038862
Price
$11.99Price
$15.99 CADFormat
Format:
- Digital download $11.99 $15.99 CAD
- Trade Paperback $24.99 $31.99 CAD
Buy from Other Retailers:
“Almost impossible to put down … A punchy and riveting narrative.” —New York Review of Books
When a Serbian-backed assassin gunned down Archduke Franz Ferdinand in late June 1914, no one could have imagined the shocking bloodshed that would soon follow. Indeed, as acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin reveals in July 1914, World War I might have been avoided entirely had it not been for the actions of a small group of statesmen in the month after the assassination. Whether they plotted for war or rode the whirlwind nearly blind—from Austrian Foreign Minster Leopold von Berchtold and German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov and French President Raymond Poincaré—each sought to capitalize on the fallout from Ferdinand’s murder, unwittingly leading Europe toward the greatest cataclysm it had ever seen. A revolutionary account of the genesis of World War I, July 1914 draws on troves of new evidence to show how a single month—and a handful of men—changed the course of the twentieth century.
-
“Almost impossible to put down ... A punchy and riveting narrative.”R.J.W. Evans, New York Review of Books
-
“Gripping and well-researched ... In prose of admirable clarity, McMeekin relates the enormously complex events of that fateful summer.”National Review
-
“A fascinating and original study of the opening stages of World War I.”Philadelphia Inquirer
-
“Lucid, convincing and full of rich detail, the book is a triumph of the narrative method and a vivid demonstration that chronology is the logic of history.”Independent (UK)
-
“A work of meticulous scholarship ... Irresistible.”Sunday Times (UK)
