In late June 1914, no one could have imagined the shocking bloodshed that would soon follow. Indeed, as acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin reveals in July 1914, World War I might have been avoided entirely had it not been for the actions of a small group of statesmen in the month after the assassination. Whether they plotted for war or rode the whirlwind nearly blind—from Austrian Foreign Minster Leopold von Berchtold and German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov and French President Raymond Poincaré—each sought to capitalize on the fallout from Ferdinand’s murder, unwittingly leading Europe toward the greatest cataclysm it had ever seen.
Pages: 481
Published: April 2014
