This was a short book, so this will be a short entry (it is one I found in the bowels of the Pentagon Library). Henig's is a brief summary of scholarly positions on the origins of the war framing a brief survey of events from the rise of Bismarck through 1914. It is intended as a preparation for "advanced exams" though I'm not sure exactly what that means (sounds Harry Potterish to me).
Her focus initially is on the longer term factors already discussed: industrialization, urbanization, German economic growth, social Darwinism, and the like. In Germany, she focuses heavily on the clash between liberalism/socialism/democracy and the Junker aristocracy. Indeed, she spends most of her time looking at Germany, concluding that Bismarck's diplomatic efforts achieved shorter-term stability but at the cost of longer term problems.
She does a decent job of covering the essential events of 1912-1914 in a short amount of space, concluding that the war was not that which the powers had prepared themselves for, mentally or materially. As for war guilt, she does a good job of providing a scholarly survey (a sort of literature review) of the main schools of thought, from 1919 to the present. She definitely agrees with Fritz Fischer, the "father" of German war guilt as the explanation for the war, providing a summary of how he went from academic pariah to widely accepted.
It's a quick little book, and not much new ground, but I rather liked the academic approach to covering the main scholars on the topic.
Next up will probably be a brief WW1 hiatus as I prep for some new grad school classes I am teaching this summer.
I have to admit, I had not read this one--but it sounds pretty familiar in terms of content. You can always get a great food-fight/debate going in a seminar using Fritz Fischer. While a bit over the top, I think his essential thesis is correct.
ReplyDeleteThe timing of his publication was also a major factor--the 60s was a period of "reevaluation" for Germans regarding questions of culpability for WW2, let alone WWI.
I don't think this little book would be one a hardcore scholar would go to -- it's really too broad and too short except as a quick overview of the major threads.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed reading these "origins of" books. I think I have a few more to go through, but then it'll be time for the nitty gritty of the war itself. Unfortunaely (or fortunately, depending) I took on a heavier than usual teaching load for the rest of this year, so that will diminish my reading time a bit. I should still be able to keep at it, though, albeit at a reduced pace.