Reddit reviews The First World War: Volume I: To Arms (First World War (Oxford))

>C'mon the situation of the time was very easy to go wrong, just because one Serbian was nationalistic doesn't mean that factor was that important. Saying his actions on its own were that big of a reason for the war is gross oversimplification. The whole situation was rigged to explode at that time, overarching reasons being the many diffrent alliances between the European powers and the eagerness of some European rulers to go to war. I'd say nationalism was important for rallying the people to go to war though.



I'd have up disagree. The black hand had members and supporters in the upper echelons of the Serbian government and military sending then arms and turning a blind eye to a regionally destabilizing terrorist group who were calling for the annexation of Austro-hungarian territories. It wasn't one Serbian, but an active quasi government supported terrorist group running arms to separatists on the A-H side of the border.

When assessing in a limited timeframe the start of the first world war cannot solely be blamed on either Austria-Hungarian bellicosity or Serbian nationalism, but a mixture of the two. Arguing that the world was a ticking time bomb or whatever and anything could have set a war off, and there was an inevitable walk to war due to a web of alliances ignores the facts that no matter how likely one may posit that war was in the summer of 1914, the war which happened was started by a group of Serbian nationalist terrorists conspiring to assassinate the Austrian heir apparent in Sarajevo. While the wholesale expansion of the war was generally due to the rather cavalier actions of Germany and the alliances and such which drew Russia and Britain and company into the conflict, the initial war was a regional conflict between Austria Hungary and Serbia. When one relegates nationalism to simply rallying 'the people' to war one ignores the political changes and new nations which were created after the war, a result of the widespread nationalism at the time. I'd recommend this as a source on the beginning of the war. Hew Strachan is quite a good reflection of the current historiography of the war. If you're at all interested in the first world war's beginning this book is a must read.

This is a huge period of time, early modern and modern.

The 16th century is defined by religious wars, as is the first half of the 17th. I'm not sure of a good source on the Peasant Wars and such but I do know the absolute megalith you should get for the 30 Years' War (1618-1648) which is honestly the most important thing you could possibly study between 1492 - 1815 (the Early Modern Era traditionally). Yes, even more than the Napoleonic Wars. The greatest volume I've found on this is The Thirty Years' War: Europe's Tragedy by Peter Wilson.

I can not emphasize this enough: I know many people who consider the Early Modern Era to start in 1648 because of how fucking important the conclusion of this war was and what this war represented. It was the last religious war in Europe, it absolutely obliterated political lines and changed everything forever. It harkened the downfall of the top dogs at the time of Sweden, Poland, the Hapsburgs, the Ottomans, and Spain. This is a fucking important war.

Another great war on probably the most tumultuous area of the Early Modern Era is The Northern Wars: War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558 - 1721 by Robert Frost. If you want a book (that is pricey as shit) on arguably the most important man of the Early Modern Era and who brought France into greatness and basically started Absolutism I'd check out The Wars of Louis XIV: 1667 - 1714.

In terms of the Napoleonic Wars...well...it's a fucking hard topic to cover. There's not a lot of good general histories out there. I'll page /u/DonaldFDraper and ask him to come in if he has anything particular he'd like to recommend but preemptively I'll recommend Bayonets of the Republic: Motivation And Tactics In The Army Of Revolutionary France, 1791-94 written by that same dude who wrote the Wars of Louix XIV. Ultimately you can't separate the military history from the Napoleonic period very easily so you're going to get a bit of both whether you like it or not (but I hope you do! It's a great period of study w.r.t. military history). While I haven't read it I have heard French Society in Revolution, 1789-1799 by David Andress is a good read. However my principal source on the Napoleonic Wars is The Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler. Yeah it's expensive, go find it cheap (or free) if you can online (because it does exist, found it before I actually buckled down and bought it) but it is the source on Napoleon. This should be the last book you get though and only if this period becomes a fascination with you.

After that I'd recommend The Franco-Prussian War: The German Invasion of France 1870-1871 by Michael Howard and to help dispel some myths and give a general overview of the common perceptions of WWI The Great War: Myth and Memory by Dan Todman. If you want an overview of events leading up to the war along with the opening year or so I'd recommend the absolute megalith The First World War: Volume I: To Arms by Hew Strachan. This is the book you should get on your introduction to the First World War along with Myth and Memory. Read this one first though.

Enjoy:
http://www.amazon.com/First-World-War-Oxford-Paperback/dp/0199261911/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1300565349&sr=8-2

Russia told the Serbs to accept the ultimatum. Serbia accepted nine points out of ten of the ultimatum. Which was specifically designed by Austria to be rejected so that Austria could have their war. And yes, I actually would be surprised to see how much they tried for a war not to happen, seeing as most of those in power both in Austria, with regards to Serbia, and Germany, with regards to Russia, explicitly wanted war against those countries at the time.

Honestly, actual history books such as The First World War by Hew Strachan, while not perfect, explain what lead up to the war quite well. You can start with Volume 1, which covers the beginning of the conflict.