Coming of the First World War

This book makes two distinctive contributions to one of the most fundamental debates in modern European history. First, it presents readable and judicious accounts of the events and decisions directly precipitating the outbreak of war in each of the main belligerent countries; second, it assesses the role of public opinion and popular mood in determining and responding to the `July Crisis' of 1914.With a list of contributors who are all distinguished in different aspects of the subject, this stimulating survey covers the historiography of the immediate causes of the war, and includes new reflections on the character of the official and unofficial `mentalités' during the last weeks of peace.Contributors: Sir Michael Howard, Zbynek Zeman, R. J. W. Evans, D. W. Spring, Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann, Richard Cobb, and Michael Brock.

A collection of excellent essays ... incorporating the conclusions of the latest scholarship., ... full of fresh ideas and mostly elegantly and eloquently written. It fully justifies the editors" claim to have contributed something new and significant by concentrating ... upon the actual decisions of politicians and their immediate background in the public opinion and popular mood of those sultry July days.