Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Steve Haycox: As the centenary of World War 1 approaches

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Steve Haycox: As the centenary of World War 1 approaches

Steve Haycox: War easy to romanticize away from heat of battle

By STEVE HAYCOX June 13, 2014

As the centenary of World War I approaches, which can be dated from the assassination of the Hapsburg Austrian empire heir Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on July 28, 1914, the expected rasher of books has rekindled discussion on the war's cause, about which there has never been a consensus among historians.

Was it, as Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty ending the war maintained, a matter of aggressive German imperialism, of Kaiser Wilhlem II making ruthless war on hapless and sometime helpless European neighbors? Or was it, as nationalist historians during and after World War II asserted, the combined stupidity of such European leaders as the Kaiser, England's Sir Edward Grey, France's Raymond Poincarre, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Sozonov and the Austrian Francis Joseph...

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Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/06/13/3515781/steve-haycox-war-easy-to-romanticize.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter

In its aftermath it was called "The Great War," for in its worldwide sweep, it enveloped all the major nations one way or another, and brought 16 million deaths and 20 million wounded; 7 million of the deaths were civilian. It settled nothing among nations, and created conditions in Germany that led to World War II. .Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/06/13/3515781/steve-haycox-war-easy-to-romanticize.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter..

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