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World War I Origins

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The origins of World War I are best summarized in two contexts. The first stresses long-term issues such as nationalism, materialism, and militarism. It critiques a diplomatic system that devolved into rival alliances that risked turning any conflict into a doomsday machine. This structural approach incorporates the domestic tensions generated by industrialism, a shift that led to the emergence of an upper class of old aristocrats and new bourgeoisie willing to risk war to maintain their position. The second context of the war’s origins emphasizes volitional elements. The states of Europe, Great Powers and lesser ones, interacted according to decisions that were made by relatively small groups of politicians, officials, and soldiers so that relatively small events, such as the assassination of Habsburg archduke Franz Ferdinand, could set off a chain reaction of events leading to a war no one wanted. Taken together, these contexts inform most of the literature on the origins of World War I but that is not to say plenty of debate still goes on over the events that precipitated the first shot.
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  5. Overviews
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  7. In an increasingly visual age, the structure and the sources of the Historial de la Grande Guerre at Péronne, France, set the standard for establishing the war’s atmosphere. In the world of print, several well-known and well-respected overviews directly address the origins of World War I. The first one hundred pages of Strachan 2001 are close to definitive on the war’s origins, and they can be read separately from the rest of the book by anyone with a basic background. Schroeder 1972 and Remak 1971 have helped many a graduate student through orals, and they can be recommended to general readers as well. Martel 2008 is a concise and sophisticated presentation that contains a well-chosen sample of significant documents and an updated reading list that makes it an ideal book for undergraduates. Lafore 1981 begins with the mid-19th-century wars of German unification and emphasizes the Balkans. Stressing political factors, it remains a useful general introduction. Geiss 1990 focuses on the economic subtext. It is a well-executed and typical example of the “industrial capitalism was responsible” school that from the 1930s to the 1970s shaped, and arguably dominated, interpretations of the war’s origins. Stevenson 1997 focuses on the discussions surrounding the war’s outbreak and is still useful as a summary of the main lines of causes and responsibilities. The website of the recently established International Society for First World War Studies is an essential clearinghouse for news and information on current developments on the subject.
  8.  
  9. Geiss, Immanuel. Der lange Weg in die Katastrophe: Die Vorgeschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges, 1815–1914. Munich: Piper, 1990.
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  11. Well-executed and typical example of the “industrial capitalism was responsible” school that from the 1930s to the 1970s shaped, and arguably dominated, interpretations of the war’s origins.
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  13. Historial de la Grande Guerre.
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  15. The Historial de la Grande Guerre still sets the standard for visuals that define a site of memory, mourning—and understanding.
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  17. International Society for First World War Studies.
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  19. Official website of the International Society for First World War Studies, the central clearing-house and meeting point for scholars on every aspect of the war, its origins, and its aftermath.
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  21. Lafore, Laurence. The Long Fuse: An Interpretation of the Origins of World War I. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1981.
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  23. Eschews discussion of war guilt in favor of analyzing Europe’s changing structure and mentality as central to the war’s outbreak. First published in 1965 (Philadelphia: Lippincott).
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  25. Martel, Gordon. The Origins of the First World War. Rev. 3d ed. London: Longman, 2008.
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  27. Latest edition of a book first published with James Joll in 1987. Its conciseness (196 pages), sophisticated presentation, well-chosen sample of significant documents, and updated bibliography continue to make this an ideal “backpack book” for undergraduates.
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  29. Remak, Joachim. “1914 The Third Balkan War: Origins Reconsidered?” Journal of Modern History 43 (1971): 353–366.
  30. DOI: 10.1086/240647Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  31. Asserts the war’s initial Balkan provenance and its segue into a study in falling dominoes. Best read along with Schroeder 1972, which offers an opposing perspective.
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  33. Schroeder, Paul W. “World War I and Galloping Gertie: A Reply to Joachim Remak.” Journal of Modern History 44 (1972): 319–345.
  34. DOI: 10.1086/240800Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  35. Brilliant theoretically structured analysis emphasizing the comprehensive overstraining of Europe’s diplomatic structuring in the decades preceding the war, to a point where the stabilizing factors worked in reverse.
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  37. Stevenson, David. The Outbreak of the First World War: 1914 in Perspective. Studies in European History. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997.
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  39. Focuses on the discussions surrounding the war’s outbreak, still useful after more than a decade as a summary of the main lines of causes and responsibilities. Ideal for classroom use.
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  41. Strachan, Hew. The First World War. Vol. I, To Arms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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  43. Includes a brilliantly presented analysis of the war’s origins, a state-of-the-art synthesis of evidence and approaches. The first one hundred pages are definitive and provide a useful overview.
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  45. Anthologies
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  47. The anthology format continues to dominate approaches to publications on World War I. In good part, this reflects the significant spectrums of interpretation on almost every aspect of the subject. A cafeteria approach is correspondingly both appealing and useful for readers seeking a developed introduction to the war’s origins. The contributions to Afflerbach and Stevenson 2007 take the question of the war’s origins back to the French Revolution. The five essays in Miller, et al. 1991 are written from a contemporary perspective and highlight the nonrational factors that escalated what seemed a routine crisis into a world war. Hamilton and Herwig 2003 focuses closely on 1914 and stresses the contingent behavior of small elites. Evans and Pogge von Strandmann 1988 offers a series of studies in state policy. May 1984 emphasizes the role of information broadly defined. Laqueur and Mosse 1966 is dated but not obsolete, and it is still a useful guide to further reading.
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  49. Afflerbach, Holger, and David Stevenson. An Improbable War? The Outbreak of World War I and European Political Culture before 1914. New York: Berghahn, 2007.
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  51. Best of the contemporary crop, intended for scholars, its contributions emphasize the war’s roots in the “long 19th century” that began with the French Revolution, and in that context establish the conflict’s contingent nature.
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  53. Evans, R. J. W., and Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann. The Coming of the First World War. Oxford: Clarendon, 1988.
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  55. Takes a country-by-country approach. The essays integrate domestic and international factors; the distinguished contributors have extended the work’s shelf life with generally perceptive interpretations that remain solid despite subsequent research developments and are useful as graduate and upper-division supplements.
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  57. Hamilton, Richard F., and Holger Herwig, eds. The Origins of World War I. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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  59. Focuses closely on 1914; stresses the central role of specific decisions made by small coteries of governing elites, and accordingly contributes strongly to the “contingency” approach to the war’s outbreak—namely, that nothing is inevitable until it happens.
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  61. Laqueur, Walter, and George L. Mosse, eds. 1914: The Coming of the First World War. New York: Harper, 1966.
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  63. Edited by two great scholars; state of the art when first published. Essays combine for comprehensive coverage; reference apparatus is solid. Still a useful introduction to many of the issues of responsibility and causation that would dominate during the rest of the century; the texts and footnotes of the individual entries are correspondingly valuable to students of the war’s historiography.
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  65. May, Ernest R., ed. Knowing One’s Enemies: Intelligence Assessment before the Two World Wars. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.
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  67. The essays on World War I in this collection demonstrate that the more the Great Powers knew about each other, the more aware they became of their own shortcomings—and the more concerned about being caught off balance in a war that was generally expected to be short.
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  69. Miller, Steven E., Sean M. Lynn-Jones, and Stephen van Evera, eds. Military Strategy and the Origins of the First World War. Rev. ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
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  71. Based on a special issue of International Security, the contributions have a political science focus and are aimed at academic readers. Noteworthy is the case made by Scott Sagan that offensive doctrines manifested perceived weakness rather than perceived strength.
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  73. Journals
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  75. Three journals stand out as sources for significant publications on the war’s origins. War in History, though not a specialist periodical, regularly includes specialized essays addressing the subject. First World War Studies is a new publication that is especially interested in publishing the work of younger scholars. A magazine rather than a journal, 14–18, le magazine de la Grande Guerre, focuses, as its title indicates, on the conflict itself but contains a fair amount of material on origins and preparations.
  76.  
  77. First World War Studies.
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  79. Published by Taylor and Francis, this journal’s first issue appeared in 2010. It focuses on comparative, transnational, and interdisciplinary approaches and is published twice a year.
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  81. 14–18, le magazine de la Grande Guerre.
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  83. Since 2001, published in France by SOTECA. This is a magazine rather than a journal. Its contributors are, however, established scholars of their subject. The maps and illustrations are superlative, and the French not so complex as to deter or discourage readers with a reasonable grasp of the language. Merits a subscription, if only as a learning tool.
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  85. War in History
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  87. Since 1993, a useful graduate and undergraduate source for specialized articles dealing with the war’s background and the institutions involved. Published quarterly.
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  89. European Factors
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  91. The Great War’s origins transcended national boundaries. Mayer 1981 considers the nature of a pre-1914 ruling class more heterogeneous than usually understood, but lacking cohesion. Crook 1994 takes an intellectual perspective, stressing the limits of Darwinism as a causal factor. Winter 1995 and Ekstein 1989, best consulted in tandem, use the war’s origins as a basis for discussing its comprehensive cultural impact.
  92.  
  93. Crook, Paul. Darwinism, War and History: The Debate over the Biology of War from the “Origin of Species” to the First World War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  94. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511521348Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  95. Challenges the familiar connection between Darwinism and war by demonstrating the extreme, often intellectually flawed, efforts made to link the two. A second-level monograph, best suited for graduate students.
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  97. Ekstein, Modris. Rites of Spring: The First World War and the Birth of the Modern Age. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.
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  99. The title says it all. Probably the best monographic interpretation of the war as a modernizing experience.
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  101. Mayer, Arno. The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War. New York: Pantheon, 1981.
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  103. Stresses the dysfunctional consequences of power wielded by an increasingly anachronistic ruling class.
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  105. Winter, Jay. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
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  107. Redefined understandings of the Great War by using memorialization as a basis for interpreting the war’s role in reinforcing fundamental elements of traditional European society, as opposed to destroying them.
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  109. Global Issues
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  111. The Great War was also a world war, and its global roots are complex and comprehensive. Wesseling 2004 is useful for its eschewing of the Anglocentricity common to the subject. Offer 1989 presents the war’s origins in the context of an integrating global agriculture. Headrick 2010 and Ralston 1990 focus on the military aspects. Fogarty 2008 offers a sophisticated analysis of the role of French colonialism during the war.
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  113. Fogarty, Richard S. Race and War in France. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
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  115. Graduate-level presentation of the origins and employment of African troops by the French army before and during the war.
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  117. Headrick, Daniel R. Power over Peoples: Technology, Environments, and Western Imperialism, 1400 to the Present. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.
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  119. Establishes the central role of technology—military technology in particular—and its accompanying mentality in the success of imperialism. Reader friendly in argument and presentation.
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  121. MacDonald, Robert H. The Language of Empire: Myths and Metaphors of Popular Imperialism. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1994.
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  123. Following the reasoning of Michel Foucault, MacDonald presents imperialism as a linguistic construction, concentrating on masculinist, military tropes and images.
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  125. Offer, Avner. The First World War: An Agrarian Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon, 1989.
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  127. An exception to the rule emphasizing industry and technology in insisting on the importance of global agricultural issues in the war’s planning and outbreak.
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  129. Ralston, David B. Importing the European Army: The Introduction of European Military Techniques and Institutions into the Extra-European World, 1600–1914. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
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  131. Standard analysis of the influence of European ways of war on the non-Western world.
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  133. Wesseling, H. L. The European Colonial Empires, 1815–1919. London: Longman, 2004.
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  135. Best survey to date of European colonial expansion in all its aspects, and the spectrum of responses. For graduate students and advanced undergraduates.
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  137. Attitudes to War
  138.  
  139. Feelings and thoughts impelled Europe into war as much as diplomatic documents and call-up notices. Becker 1977 breaks new ground in demonstrating the contingent, limited nature of French support for the war. Verhey 2000 does the same for the Germans. Morris 1984 goes deeper temporally in establishing the growth of a climate of fear in Britain. Adams 1990 explores the psychological dimensions of the relationship between war and masculine identity; Wohl 1979 focuses on the generational aspects.
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  141. Adams, Michael C. C. The Great Adventure: Male Desire and the Coming of World War I. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.
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  143. Interprets the conflict in a context of male sexuality, challenged by a century of peace and civilization, responding to what seemed a great adventure.
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  145. Becker, Jean-Jacques. 1914: Comment les Français sont entrés dans la guerre: Contribution à l’étude de l’opinion publique, printemps-été 1914. Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1977.
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  147. This seminal work broke a new path for a generation of scholars investigating the ambivalent attitudes with which Europe went to war in 1914.
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  149. Morris, A. J. The Scaremongers: The Advocacy of War and Rearmament, 1896–1914. London: Routledge, 1984.
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  151. Presents the gradual creation of a climate of fear in prewar Britain, stressing the role of the popular press in exacerbating and sustaining invasion panic.
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  153. Verhey, Jeffrey. The Spirit of 1914. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
  154. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511497155Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  155. Reprises the approach in Becker 1977, showing that war sentiment in Germany was more episodic, and shallower, than generations of German scholars accepted.
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  157. Wohl, Robert. The Generation of 1914. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1979.
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  159. Presents the contributions of Europe’s intellectuals to the coming catastrophe, stressing the role of an emerging youth culture impatient of gerontocratic restraints.
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  161. Art and Literature
  162.  
  163. Military themes were increasingly present in popular art and literature in the final years of the 19th century. Eby 1988 describes the shift away from mid-century liberal antiwar tropes in British popular fiction in favor of positive images of war and imperial conquest. In a parallel work, Peck 1998 presents the soldier’s evolution from social outcast to national symbol, epitomized in the work of Rudyard Kipling. Hichberger 1988 discusses the emergence in British art of “heroic realism,” that is, death in battle with an affirmative spin. Robichon 1998 examines French military painting, which, more often than its British counterpart, addressed themes of heroic defeat usually drawn from the battle of Waterloo and the Franco-Prussian War.
  164.  
  165. Eby, Cecil D. The Road to Armageddon: The Martial Spirit in English Popular Literature, 1870–1914. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1988.
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  167. Discusses the effects of imperialism and militarism in late-Victorian general-audience fiction.
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  169. Hichberger, J. W. M. Images of the Army: The Military in British Art, 1815–1914. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1988.
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  171. Presents the growth of “heroic realism” in art—a process facilitated as the locations of death in battle grew more remote and the casualties grew smaller.
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  173. Peck, John. War, the Army, and Victorian Literature. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1998.
  174. DOI: 10.1057/9780230378803Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  175. Shows literature’s contributions to an increasingly favorable image of armed force and its purposes. Discusses such popular works as Westward Ho! and Hereward the Wake.
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  177. Robichon, François. La peinture militaire française de 1871 à 1914. Paris: Giovanangeli, 1998.
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  179. Examines the rise of heroic imagery in French military painting, which drew most of its inspiration from the Napoleonic era and the Franco–Prussian War.
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  181. Militarism
  182.  
  183. Förster 1985 stresses militarism’s function as a means of internal control in a German context; Miller 2002 depicts the same phenomenon in France as a consequence of co-opting republican patriotism. Ingenlath 1998 and Nolan 2005 present a reciprocal process, each form of militarism reinforcing the other. Vogel 1997 describes militarism in terms of a secular near-religion. Kennedy 1982 presents the Anglo-German antagonism in broader cultural terms. The militarization of daily life also flourished, from nurseries filled with toy soldiers to taverns filled with nostalgic reservists—a development well presented in Cooper 1991. All things considered, the hawks definitely dominated, though Rohrkramer 1990 shows that active warmongering as opposed to patrioteering and posturing remained at a discount.
  184.  
  185. Cooper, Sandi E. Patriotic Patriotism: Waging War on War in Europe, 1815–1914. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
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  187. Discusses citizen challenges to government control of foreign and military policies, and the international peace movement that resulted.
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  189. Förster, Stig. Der doppelte Militarismus: Die deutsche Heeresrüstungspolitik zwischen Status-quo-Sicherung und Aggression, 1890–1913. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1985.
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  191. Demonstrates that German militarism was a means of internal control and international challenge.
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  193. Ingenlath, Markus. Mentale Aufrüstung: Militärisierungstendenzen in Frankreich und Deutschland vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg. Frankfurt: Campus, 1998.
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  195. Well-executed comparative analysis of comprehensive mutual militarization, restricted to those with a good reading knowledge of German.
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  197. Kennedy, Paul. The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860–1914. London: Allen & Unwin, 1982.
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  199. Establishes the growing gap in German and British mentalities before 1914 and the consequences for diplomacy. Tight structure and complex arguments suit advanced undergraduate and graduate levels.
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  201. Miller, Paul B. From Revolutionaries to Citizens: Antimilitarism in France, 1870–1914. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002.
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  203. Traces the merging of revolutionary antimilitarism into republican patriotic consciousness.
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  205. Nolan, Michael E. The Inverted Mirror: Mythologizing the Enemy in France and Germany, 1898–1914. New York: Berghahn, 2005.
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  207. Presents the increasingly negative reciprocal mirror-imaging in France and Germany before the war. Short length makes it useful supplementary reading in undergraduate courses.
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  209. Rohrkramer, Thomas. Der Militarismus der “kleinen Leute”: Der Kriegsvereine im Deutschen Kaiserreich, 1871–1914. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1990.
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  211. Discusses the role of veterans’ organizations in militarizing German daily life.
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  213. Vogel, Jakob. Nationen im Gleichschritt: Der Kult der “Nation in Waffen” in Deutschland und Frankreich, 1871–1914. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1997.
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  215. Describes militarization and conscription as attitude adjusters for popular militarism. Good graduate-level source.
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  217. Antimilitarism and Pacifism
  218.  
  219. The distinguishing characteristics of antiwar movements in pre–Great War Europe were their small size and high ambivalence: Chickering 1975 is a good case study. Pure pacifism was, for practical purposes, the resort of individuals. Middle-class peace groups achieved nothing outside of their own meeting rooms—see Uhlig 1988. On the left, Stargardt 1994 shows that antimilitarism was as much an instrument to challenge—and anger “bourgeois” power structures as it was a moral principle. On the other hand, Dülffer 1981 shows the potential of international law to structure and control some of war making’s details.
  220.  
  221. Chickering, Roger. Imperial Germany and a World without War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.
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  223. Establishes the institutional weaknesses of German pacifism, emphasizing the little resonance it found in German society and the naiveté that compromised so much of the movement’s thinking and behavior.
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  225. Dülffer, Jost. Regeln gegen den Krieg? Die Haager Friedenskonferenzen 1899 und 1907 in der internationalen Politik. Berlin: Ullstein, 1981.
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  227. Highlights the making of agreements providing at least some frameworks of acceptable conduct once the guns went off.
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  229. Stargardt, E. N. R. The German Idea of Militarism: Radical and Socialist Critics, 1866–1914. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
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  231. Depicts German Social Democrats’ antimilitarism as a form of opposition politics.
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  233. Uhlig, Ralph. Die Interparlamentarische Union 1889–1914: Friedenssicherungsbemühungen in Zeitalter des Imperalismus. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1988.
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  235. A case study in well-intentioned failure on the international level.
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  237. The Arms Races
  238.  
  239. Europe’s arms race, as Pick 1993 shows, was as much about ideas as weapons. Storz 1992 establishes a contribution to the growing mutual anxiety characterizing international relations. Herrmann 1997 and Stevenson 1996 combine for a discussion of the contest’s last stage, when resources were wildly expended without altering the running order. Sumida 1993 on the Royal Navy is paradigmatic for the development of prewar sea power in general: Europe reacted to Britannia, as Herwig 1980 demonstrates. Wilmott 2009 evaluates the changing operational climate generated by improved warship designs and doctrines that often failed to keep pace. Morrow 1993 is excellent on the origins of military aviation, and unexpected in showing its quick acceptance.
  240.  
  241. Herrmann, David. The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.
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  243. Demonstrates the course and consequences of an arms race that drastically accelerated after the turn of the 20th century. Accessible to undergraduates.
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  245. Herwig, Holger. “Luxury” Fleet: The Imperial German Navy, 1888–1918. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1980.
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  247. Presents the German navy as a high-risk indulgence both domestically and in terms of foreign policy.
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  249. Morrow, John H. The Great War in the Air: Military Aviation from 1909 to 1921. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press, 1993.
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  251. Begins with an excellent comparative account of prewar military aviation, stressing the enthusiastic welcome it was given in Europe’s armies.
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  253. Pick, Daniel. War Machine: The Rationalization of Slaughter in the Modern Age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993.
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  255. An outstanding analysis of the growing justification of mass killing during war, in the name of a toxic synergy of idealism and anxiety. Useful even for undergraduate supplementary reading.
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  257. Stevenson, David. Armaments and the Coming of War: Europe, 1904–1914. Oxford: Clarendon, 1996.
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  259. A detailed, perceptive account of an arms race that increased tensions without altering relative positions. The approach stresses the synergy among politics, economics, and security.
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  261. Storz, Dieter. Kriegsbild und Rüstung vor 1914: Europäische Landstreitkräfte vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg. Herford, Germany: E. S. Mittler, 1992.
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  263. Presents the arms race in the context of increasing mutual anxiety as armed forces considered the apocalyptic destructiveness that a major war might bring.
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  265. Sumida, Jon. In Defence of Naval Supremacy: Finance, Technology, and British Naval Policy, 1889–1914. London: Routledge, 1993.
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  267. The best analysis of the political, technological, and institutional matrices of the wartime Royal Navy. Intellectually dense but amply repays close reading.
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  269. Wilmott, H. P. The Last Century of Sea Power: From Port Arthur to Chanak, 1894–1922. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.
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  271. Discusses the technological, doctrinal, and operational evolution of sea power; particularly good for the prewar era.
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  273. War Plans
  274.  
  275. The pre–Great War era was a period where improvisation was perceived as the road to catastrophe. Hamilton and Herwig 2010 is innovative in the stress the contributors place on the flexibility of the respective war plans, more familiarly described in terms of rigidity. The essays in Kennedy 1985 remain solid and are undergraduate-friendly in presentation. Significant research continues to focus on the German approaches. Förster 1995 breaks new ground in highlighting the German general staff’s belief in a long war. Hobson 2002 is excellent for the strategic ramifications of the Reich’s naval development. In wider contexts, Gooch 1974 stresses the neglected global, imperial aspects of British strategic planning; Marshall 2006 does the same for Russia. Stevenson 2007 gives details of vital prewar developments in Belgium.
  276.  
  277. Förster, Stig. “Der Deutsche Generalstab und die Illusion des kurzen Krieges, 1871–1914: Metakritik eines Mythos.” Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 54 (1995): 61–95.
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. Demolishes the myth of the military’s belief in a short war, demonstrating instead a growing sense that France and Russia could not be defeated quickly by the German army as it existed prior to the outbreak of war.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Gooch, John. The Plans of War: The General Staff and British Military Strategy c. 1900–1916. London: Routledge, 1974.
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  283. Insightful on the role of Britain’s newly established general staff; stresses the neglected global, imperial aspects of British strategic planning.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Hamilton, Richard F., and Holger Herwig, eds. War Planning 1914. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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  287. Significant for its revisionist approach emphasizing planning as a continuous process rather than a static achievement. This is particularly useful as a matrix for evaluating respective war plans.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Hobson, Rolf. Imperialism at Sea: Naval Strategic Thought, the Ideology of Sea Power, and the Tirpitz Plan, 1875–1914. Boston: Brill, 2002.
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  291. A demanding read, but unmatched for depth and perception on the naval strategic question.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Kennedy, Paul, ed. The War Plans of the Great Powers, 1880–1914. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1985.
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. Long a standard, still useful at all levels for the high quality of the essays and the work’s global perspective.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Marshall, Alex. The Russian General Staff and Asia, 1800–1917. London: Routledge, 2006.
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  299. In demonstrating the continuing importance of its eastern frontiers to Russian planning and policy, this book usefully expands consideration of the tsarist empire’s security problems.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Stevenson, David. “Battlefield or Barrier? Rearmament and Military Planning in Belgium, 1905–1914.” International History Review 29 (2007): 473–507.
  302. DOI: 10.1080/07075332.2007.9641133Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. Analyzes the evolution of military planning in the war’s crucial initial theater.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. The Schlieffen Plan
  306.  
  307. The alleged German master plan to secure victory by a lightning campaign in France and Belgium remains a fruitful subject of analysis. The flat denial of the Schlieffen Plan’s existence in Zuber 2002 is balanced by the contributions to Ehlert, et al. 2006. The latter work requires good knowledge of German. Foley 2005 describes the development of an unacknowledged alternative. Höbelt 1984 and Tunstall 1975 are excellent for the development of Austro-German plans for the eastern theater, which still tends to be overlooked in general accounts.
  308.  
  309. Ehlert, Hans, Michael Epkenhans, and Gerhard P. Gross. Der Schlieffenplan: Analysen und Dokumenten. Paderborn, Germany: Schoeningh, 2006.
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. German scholarship at its best, resulting in the best available compendium of material on arguably the war’s central subject. The essay by Gross demonstrating that a Schlieffen Plan did exist, and that it was flexible, is a tour de force. Accessible only to those with a good command of academic German and a solid background in military history, but worth the effort.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Foley, Robert T. German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. Demonstrates the growing recognition by German military planners, even in the 19th century, that Germany could no longer count on winning the next war by battles and campaigns of “annihilation.”
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Höbelt, Lothar. “Schlieffen, Beck, Potiorek und das Ende der gemeinsamen deutsch-österrechischen-ungarischen Aufmarschpläne im Osten.” Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 36 (1984): 7–30.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. Analyzes the growing, mutually caused strategic distance between the two Central Powers.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Tunstall, Graydon A. “The Schlieffen Plan: The Diplomacy and Military Strategy of the Central Powers in the East, 1905–1914.” PhD diss., Rutgers University, 1975.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. Still unsurpassed as an analysis of Austria-Hungary’s plans for the eastern front; far superior to the truncated published version.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Zuber, Terence. Inventing the Schlieffen Plan: German War Planning, 1871–1914. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
  326. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199250165.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. Controversial denial that a “Schlieffen Plan” existed in any coherent form, arguing instead that the concept was a postwar construction, developed by officers seeking to avoid blame for Germany’s defeat; affirms that Schlieffen’s real intention was to counterpunch and exploit opportunities as they developed.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. France
  330.  
  331. Ralston 1967 illustrates a Third Republic that spent forty years in systematic, comprehensive preparation for the military threats and challenges it perceived. Germany remained primary—to a point where Kennan 1984 shows France negotiating an alliance with its political opposite pole, tsarist Russia, and abandoning its centuries-long rivalry with Britain in favor of an entente—with consequences developed in Williamson 1969. Luntinen 1984 shows the details of the developing Franco-Russian military involvement. Keiger 1983 demonstrates the high degree of autonomy that the French Foreign Office enjoyed in the Third Republic. Diplomacy, however, could not solve the problems of a population whose growth lagged significantly behind Germany’s, which is the subject of Krumeich 1984. Nor could diplomacy improve an economy that remained inferior to both Germany and Britain in terms of heavy industry. As a result, France concentrated increasingly on developing a quality army and an effective navy for the purposes of a short war. Walser 1992 identifies the relative lack of success in the latter endeavor; Porch 1981 denotes the French army’s improved quality on the eve of war.
  332.  
  333. Horn, Martin, and Talbot Imlay. “Money in Wartime: France’s Financial Preparations for the Two World Wars.” International History Review 27 (2005): 709–753.
  334. DOI: 10.1080/07075332.2005.9641078Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. Excellent comparative analysis demonstrating French attention to an element of war planning still neglected by scholars.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Keiger, John. France and the Origins of the First World War. New York: St. Martin’s, 1983.
  338. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. Surveys French diplomacy in the immediate prewar years; includes a good analysis of the dynamics of a Foreign Office often acting almost autonomously relative to the government.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Kennan, George. The Fateful Alliance: France, Russia and the Coming of the First World War. New York: Pantheon, 1984.
  342. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  343. A magisterial analysis of the centrality of the Franco-Russian alliance to the division of Europe into hostile armed camps.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Krumeich, Gerd. Armaments and Politics in France on the Eve of the First World War. Translated by S. Conn. Dover, NH: Berg, 1984.
  346. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347. Discusses, in political and military contexts, the 1913 introduction of three years of active service, and the antagonism it generated in a France uncertain of the worth or necessity of having done so.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Luntinen, Pertti. French Information on the Russian War Plans, 1880–1914. Helsinki: Societas Historica Finlandiae, 1984.
  350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351. Narrates the increasingly detailed French knowledge of Russian war plans between 1880 and 1914.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Porch, Douglas. The March to the Marne: The French Army, 1871–1914. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
  354. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511562723Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. The definitive account of the French army’s development as a military instrument before 1914. Clearly written and undergraduate friendly.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Ralston, David B. The Army of the Republic: The Place of the Military in the Political Evolution of France, 1871–1914. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1967.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. Focuses on the army’s role in the Third Republic’s domestic politics.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Walser, Ray. France’s Search for a Battle Fleet: Naval Policy and Naval Power, 1898–1914. New York: Garland, 1992.
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  363. Published as an unrevised dissertation, but solid on the French navy’s ups and downs before the war and its struggle for funds.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Williamson, Samuel R., Jr. The Politics of Grand Strategy: Britain and France Prepare for War, 1904–1914. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. Remains standard on the prewar military aspects of the Anglo-French entente.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Britain
  370.  
  371. French 1982 demonstrates that Great Britain’s road to the Great War reflected the growing enmeshment of its imperial position with its continental relationships. The policy of “splendid isolation” so often invoked by politicians in the late 19th century is best understood as a means of sustaining the European balance of power regarded as vital to Britain’s security. Friedberg 1988 highlights the relative decline of British economic and financial power combining with the growing demands of imperial security to impel direct involvement in continental affairs. Seligmann 2006 is excellent on the intelligence aspects of that involvement. Steiner 1969 and Hinsley 1977 combine to show how Britain managed to avoid a “continental commitment,” which, in turn, made any decision for war a political as well as a diplomatic question. Neilson 1991 offers the general proposition that there was still ample diplomatic and military life remaining in the British lion. D’Ombrain 1973 supports the position with its analysis of defense administration; Lambert 2005 substantiates such in the context of naval communications systems.
  372.  
  373. French, David. British Economic and Strategic Planning, 1905–1915. London: Unwin, 1982.
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  375. A sophisticated analysis of the relationship of economics to politics and diplomacy; emphasizes the government’s intention to minimize its continental commitment as much as possible.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Friedberg, Aaron L. The Weary Titan: Great Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895–1905. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.
  378. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379. Presents British policy at the turn of the 20th century as based on seeking systematic relief from comprehensive overextension: a necessary preliminary to understanding the origins of the entente.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Hinsley, F. H., ed. British Foreign Policy under Sir Edward Grey. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
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  383. Excellent graduate-level anthology on foreign policy, featuring contributions by T. R. B. Langhorne on Anglo-German relations and Michael Ekstein on the triple entente.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Lambert, Nicholas. “Strategic Command and Control for Maneuver Warfare: Creation of the Royal Navy’s ‘War Room’ System, 1905–1914.” Journal of Military History 69 (2005): 361–410.
  386. DOI: 10.1353/jmh.2005.0109Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. Addresses the growing influence of prewar developments in communications technology on security policy and strategic planning.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Neilson, Keith. “‘Greatly Exaggerated’: The Myth of the Decline of Great Britain before 1914.” International History Review 13 (1991): 695–725.
  390. DOI: 10.1080/07075332.1991.9640599Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. Aggressively and concisely challenges the “declining titan” interpretation of British policy before 1914.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. d’Ombrain, Nicholas. War Machinery and High Policy: Defence Administration in Peacetime Britain, 1902–14. Oxford: Clarendon, 1973.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. Addresses the development of defense administration in the decade before the war from a bureaucratic, as opposed to a doctrinal, perspective.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Seligmann, Matthew S. Spies in Uniform: British Military and Naval Intelligence on the Eve of the First World War. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Describes the valid contributions of military intelligence to the government’s perception that the German danger was real and imminent. Well researched and quite readable.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Steiner, Zara. The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898–1914. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
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  403. Excellent for the prewar role of a Foreign Office still largely independent of political and public influence. Still good as collateral reading even on an undergraduate level.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Austria-Hungary
  406.  
  407. Was the dual monarchy a doomed empire? The empire was surrounded by potential foes, contained eleven officially recognized languages, and possessed an inadequate military budget divided among Austria’s Landwehr, Hungary’s Honvédség, and the joint Imperial and Royal Army (kaiserlich und königlich Armee [k.u.k.]), whose organizational details are developed in Austro-Hungarian Land Forces 1848–1918. Austria-Hungary, despite the optimism expressed in Deák 1990 and Remak 1969, seemed, among opinion makers in many other capitals, to be the new “Sick Man of Europe.” Its dismemberment, however, was not of immediate concern, as Sondhaus 2000 and Pantenius 1984 demonstrate. More critical was the issue presented in Angelow 2000: the empire’s apparent decline into the status of a regional power. Austro-Hungarian diplomacy sought to maintain its first-rank status on the cheap. But weak states, as Kronenbitter 2003 argues, are like weak men: They must destroy their enemies. Williamson 1991 outlines Austria-Hungary’s developing diplomatic crisis. The counterpoint in Stone 1966 exposes an approach to war planning that took too little account of the details of war readiness.
  408.  
  409. Angelow, Jürgen. Kalkuel und Prestige: Der Zweibund am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkrieges. Cologne: Böhlau, 2000.
  410. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  411. Describes the inner dynamics of an Austro-German alliance that became fatally offensive-minded, both diplomatically and militarily.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Austro-Hungarian Land Forces 1848–1918.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. Compiled by Glenn Jewison and Jörg Steiner, this site is valuable for its detailed presentation of the army’s complex organization and ethnic composition.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Deák, István. Beyond Nationalism: A Social and Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps, 1848–1918. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. An empathetic analysis of the institution that arguably did more than any other to hold Austria-Hungary together, stressing the synergies of dynastic loyalty and professionalism. By default, the best English-language overview of the Common Army.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Kronenbitter, Günther. “Krieg im Frieden”: Die Führung der k.u.k Armee und die Großmachtpolitik Österreich-Ungarns, 1906–1914. Munich: Oldenbourg, 2003.
  422. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. The definitive analysis of the prewar relationship of state policy to military planning.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Pantenius, Hans Jürgen. Der Angriffsgedanke gegen Italien bei Conrad von Hötzendorf. 2 vols. Munich: Böhlau, 1984.
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. Elaborate analysis of war plans against the state widely regarded as Austria-Hungary’s true mortal enemy.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Remak, Joachim. “The Healthy Invalid: How Doomed Was the Habsburg Empire?” Journal of Modern History 41 (1969): 127–141.
  430. DOI: 10.1086/240371Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. Makes a brief and effective case for Austria’s viability even on the eve of war.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Sondhaus, Lawrence. Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf: Architect of the Apocalypse. Boston: Humanities Press, 2000.
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  435. Best-balanced analysis in any language of the role of Austria-Hungary’s long-time chief of staff in establishing the matrix for the empire’s downfall.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Stone, Norman. “Moltke-Conrad: Relations between the Austro-Hungarian and German General Staffs, 1909–1914.” Historical Journal 9 (1966): 201–228.
  438. DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X00026534Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. Path-breaking study of Austro-German military relations immediately prior to 1914. Critical of Austrian misjudgments, it remains a first-rate work.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Williamson, Samuel R., Jr. Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
  442. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  443. This archival-based and well-reasoned overview establishes Austria-Hungary’s role as an independent actor in 1914. Excellent for beginners in a complex area of study.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Germany
  446.  
  447. Even before Otto von Bismarck’s dismissal in 1890 by the young emperor William II, challengers to the European order he created by the mid-century unification wars were emerging. The Franco-Russian alliance of 1894 reflected more than just concern at Germany’s still-growing economic and military power, discussed in context in Brose 2001. At the same time, Schoellgen 1990 shows that Germany’s foreign policy grew more erratic and acquired a global dimension that Bismarck had generally eschewed. Lambi 1984 discusses the negative diplomatic and strategic consequences of constructing an ocean-going navy. Hull 2005 describes a German Reich combining the most dynamic economy in Europe with an authoritarian political system and a highly militarized society. The latter is depicted more or less benignly on the Aktuelles website and analyzed in operational and social contexts in Brose 2001. To respond with force to a major perceived threat seemed, as Hewitson 2004 and Mombauer 2001 assert, to be leading from strength—at least in the summer of 1914. Herwig 1997 includes a brilliant analysis of the consequences: first, diplomatic crisis and, then, world war.
  448.  
  449. Aktuelles
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. Comprehensive compilation of visual and organizational data on the German army before and during the Great War.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Brose, Eric Dorn. The Kaiser’s Army, 1870–1918: Technological, Tactical, and Operational Dilemmas in Germany during the Machine Age. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  454. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  455. Best overview in any language of the German army’s internal dynamics, stressing the institution’s adaptability to technological developments.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Herwig, Holger H. The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914–1918. London: Arnold, 1997.
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. Includes the best recent analysis of the German-Austrian relationship and its direct contribution to the war’s outbreak.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Hewitson, Mark. Germany and the Causes of the First World War. New York: Berg, 2004.
  462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. State-of-the-art update on Germany’s road to the Great War, stressing the Reich’s comprehensive brinkmanship.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Hull, Isabel. Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Politics of War in Imperial Germany. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005.
  466. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  467. Describes the development of a distinctive German military culture based on absolute destruction.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Lambi, Ivo N. The Navy and German Power Policies, 1862–1914. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1984.
  470. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. Presents the dynamics of naval strategic planning in operational and political contexts.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Mombauer, Annika. Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. Focuses on the key role of Helmuth von Moltke the Younger in the war’s outbreak.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Schöllgen, Gregor. Escape into War? The Foreign Policy of Imperial Germany. New York: Berg, 1990.
  478. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. Balanced critique of the thesis that German foreign policy constituted a process of “flight forward.”
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Italy
  482.  
  483. Italy was the least of the Great Powers and the last of the Central Powers. It played, as Bosworth 1979 and Bosworth 1983 demonstrate, an appropriately ambiguous role in the war’s origins. Hostility to Austria was balanced by fear of France. Gooch 1989 describes an army widely understood across the political spectrum as an instrument for domestic control rather than power projection. The thesis of Illari 1990 denies that premise, but the text tends to affirm it. Italy played an increasing role as a Mediterranean sea power, as shown in Halpern 1971. An underdeveloped economy and a pattern of increasing social tensions, nevertheless, made Italy a dubious ally (Ropponen 1986), and helped keep the state out of the war until the Allies met its price in 1915. Yet, ironically, Childs 1990 shows that, by its 1911 intervention in Libya and the resulting disruption of the Ottoman Empire, Italy played a crucial role in setting up the crisis of 1914.
  484.  
  485. Bosworth, Richard. Italy, the Least of the Great Powers: Italian Foreign Policy before the First World War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
  486. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511562556Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. Monograph focusing on Italy’s foreign policy.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Bosworth, Richard. Italy and the Approach of the First World War. New York: St. Martin’s, 1983.
  490. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491. Paired with Bosworth 1979, focuses on the country’s domestic aspects.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Childs, Winston. Italo-Turkish Diplomacy and the War over Libya, 1911–1912. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1990.
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  495. Covers the diplomatic aspects effectively, showing how Italy’s challenge to the Ottoman Empire facilitated the Balkan Wars and paved the road to Sarajevo.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Gooch, John. Army, State, and Society in Italy, 1870–1915. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499. Excellent brief overview of policy and planning in the long term, highly suitable for an undergraduate introduction to the subject.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Halpern, Paul G. The Mediterranean Naval Situation, 1908–1914. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.
  502. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. Incorporates a solid discussion of Italy as a Mediterranean power.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Illari, Virgilio. Storia del servizio militare in Italia. Vol. 2, La “Nazione Armata” (1871–1918). Rome: Rivista Millitare, 1990.
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507. Comprehensive and informative on the complex issue of national service on Italy; well worth the effort to work through the complex Italian.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Ropponen, Risto. Italien als Verbündeter: Die Einstellung der politischen und militärischen Führung Deutschlands und Österreich-Ungarns zu Italien von der Niederlagen von Adua bis zum Ausbruch des Weltkrieges 1914. Translated by C. Krotzl. Helsinki: Societas Historica Finlandiae, 1986.
  510. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  511. Presents German and Austrian perceptions of the value of Italy as an ally.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Russia
  514.  
  515. On the one hand, prewar Russia was, as Fuller 1985 indicates, a network of anomalies and dysfunctions. An increasing need for committed, educated citizens confronted an increasingly alienated student community and an even more disaffected intelligentsia. Instead, Lincoln 1983 portrays an autocratic state system interfaced with an embryonic parliamentary system and an increasingly ambitious spectrum of revolutionary organizations. A developing industrial economy confronted a labor force whose social/cultural roots were in the 17th century and a financing system heavily dependent on foreign loans; Gatrell 1994 presents the results. Imperialism, as Geyer 1987 shows, invited overstretch. None of these situations, individually or together, made revolution inevitable. They did combine to limit what McDonald 1992 describes as an already restricted government ability to mobilize its human and material resources behind an industrial, mass war. Neilson 1995 is British-focused, but incorporates a solid general analysis of the dynamics of Russia’s prewar foreign policy. Menning 1992 and Rich 1998 depict how the armed forces had significantly improved since the debacles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, but they remained ill-prepared for what they faced.
  516.  
  517. Fuller, William C. Civil-Military Conflict in Imperial Russia, 1881–1914. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
  518. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. Establishes the significance of military influences on foreign and domestic policies during the run-up to war.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Gatrell, Peter. Government, Industry, and Rearmament in Russia, 1900–1914. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  522. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511562877Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. Analyzes the dynamics of the administrative-military-industrial complex in the prewar era.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Geyer, Dietrich. Russian Imperialism: The Interaction of Domestic and Foreign Policy, 1860–1914. Translated by Bruce Little. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987.
  526. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. Discusses the increasing role of assertive imperialism in Russia’s long-term political development. Teutonically opaque in spots; best left to graduate students.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Lincoln, W. Bruce. In War’s Dark Shadow: The Russians before the Great War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
  530. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. Useful for its presentation of the complex, conflicted Russian mentalité in the prewar years. An easy read at all levels, and correspondingly recommended.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. McDonald, D. M. United Government and Foreign Policy in Russia, 1900–1914. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
  534. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535. Surveys the development of political influence, broadly defined, on the making and implementing of foreign policy.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Menning, Bruce. Bayonets before Bullets: The Imperial Russian Army, 1861–1914. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.
  538. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539. Best overview in any language of the development of the Russian army prior to the Great War. Good supplementary reading for courses and seminars.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Neilson, Keith. Britain and the Last Tsar: British Policy and Russia, 1894–1917. Oxford: Clarendon, 1995.
  542. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204701.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  543. Traces the development of the crucial Anglo-Russian connection as an affirmative process on both sides.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Rich, David A. The Tsar’s Colonels: Professionalism, Strategy, and Subversion in Late Imperial Russia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.
  546. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  547. Establishes the relationship between the General Staff’s modernization and its influence on foreign policy. Graduate-level monograph.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Balkans
  550.  
  551. Otto von Bismarck is reputed to have said “some damn fool thing in the Balkans” would start a major war. He was right. The independent states of the peninsula increased in numbers and assertiveness in the last quarter of the 19th century, due in part to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 and Austria-Hungary’s subsequent occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Jelavich 1991 admirably presents the decline of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, long-time guarantors of regional stability. Above all, however, the Balkan states themselves transformed “from wasps to locomotives” relative to their circumstances. Lampl 1971 narrates Serbia’s public finances in an excellent case study. Hall 2000 highlights Balkan achievements in making war. Ethnic and religious as well as territorial and dynastic rivalries, some of centuries’ standing and some reflecting recent headlines, were carried forward by governments that, Boeckh 1996 shows, were increasingly successful in mobilizing and militarizing their populations and in developing armies remarkably effective in the contexts of the early 20th century. The level of Balkan military industrialization was congruent with the peninsula’s wider infrastructure. Western observers came away from the Balkan Wars of 1911–1912 with an unexpected respect for the prowess and the potential of the region’s armed forces—respect that, Erickson 2003 shows from a Turkish perspective, was amply justified. Austria-Hungary’s anxieties in 1914 regarding a Balkan threat were neither entirely imaginary nor entirely inaccurate—particularly in view of increasing Austro-German economic rivalry in the region, as demonstrated in Löding 1969. Crampton 1979 surveys the failure of the Great Powers to stabilize a region increasingly disrupted by the kind of state-nationalist ambitions that Mackenzie 1982 establishes for Serbia.
  552.  
  553. Boeckh, Katrin. Von den Balkankriegen zum Ersten Weltkrieg: Kleinstaatenpolitik und ethnische Selbstbestimmung auf den Balkan. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1996.
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  555. Emphasizes ethnic aspects of regional conflict. Densely written; requires significant reading ability in German.
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  557. Crampton, R. J. The Hollow Detente: Anglo-German Relations in the Balkans, 1911–1914. London: Prior, 1979.
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  559. Disconnects among the Great Powers are discussed here as a contribution to regional entropy.
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  561. Erickson, Edward J. Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912–1913. Greenwood, CT: Praeger, 2003.
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  563. The wars from the Ottoman perspective; establishes the relative effectiveness of Balkan armies.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Hall, Richard C. The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913: Prelude to the First World War. London: Routledge, 2000.
  566. DOI: 10.4324/9780203138052Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  567. Comprehensive and perceptive synergy of the military and diplomatic aspects of the conflicts. Excellent undergraduate introduction.
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Jelavich, Barbara. Russia’s Balkan Entanglements, 1806–1914. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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  571. Still good for Russia’s growing involvement, by a doyenne of the field.
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  573. Lampl, John R. “Financial Structure and the Economic Development of Serbia, 1878–1912.” PhD diss., University of Wisconsin, 1971.
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  575. Basic by contemporary dissertation standards but still a useful graduate-level introduction to Serbia’s economic development.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Löding, Dörte. “Deutschlands und Österreich-Ungarns Balkanpolitik von 1913 bis 1914 unter besonderer Berücksichtigung ihrer Wirtschaftsinteresse.” PhD diss., University of Hamburg, 1969.
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  579. Presents German-Austrian antagonism on Balkan policy due to tension over economic issues.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Mackenzie, David. “Serbian Nationalist and Military Organization and the Piedmont Idea, 1844–1914.” East European Quarterly 16 (1982): 323–344.
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  583. Describes Serbia’s developing self-image as the focal point of Balkan unification.
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