the war that ended peace the road to 1914

A new breed of politicians was going outside established parliamentary institutions to appeal to popular fears and prejudices and their populism, especially among the nationalist parties….” “The old liberal parties which stood for free markets, the rule of law, and human rights for all were losing ground to socialist parties on the left, and increasingly chauvinistic parties on the right.

The comparison of similarities has more to do with global mindsets rather than the details of specific events. belligerence chasing around the world, but the Middle East is probably the most serious contender with all its oil, the petrodollar, and Christian Zionism focussing into that region. A future conflict could arise elsewhere with the U.S. Obviously there are differences: the technology of war, the communications, the armaments are vastly more powerful and faster than before the global political scene has shifted from a bunch of empires thrashing out their spheres of influence to one empire attempting to retain hegemony while other polarities rise and the center of the conflict’s origins has shifted somewhat from the Balkans/Ottoman interface to its close southern neighbour, the Arab states and Israel and Iran (all of which were also involved in the first mess, but not central to it). What struck me on this second reading was my own comparison of that era to our current global situation. It is a book I highly recommend as it flows smoothly and delves into the personalities and mindsets of the various people involved in making the fatal decisions leading up to the war.

It is a well written history that I have read before – and may have formally reviewed although that is not of consequence now. On a recent hiking trip I took along Margaret MacMillan’s pre World War I history, “The War That Ended Peace – The Road to 1914” (Penguin Canada, 2013).

The war that ended peace the road to 1914