But if you are interested in WWI history, it raises interesting ideas. In The Pity of War, Niall Ferguson dedicates fourteen essays to addressing the major historical issues associated with the First World War.The essays fall into three broad categories: war origins, execution, and aftermath. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Parents Guide. Theorists like J.A. It blame in part Germany for causing a continental war and the British Empire for causing a word war. | Other anecdotes are less worthy of emulation. Also debunks the myth that Germany was strong when Great-Britain appeased Russia and France before the war. Overt militarism, Germany’s ascent to power, alliance-based foreign policies, arms racing, and British intervention are issues covered in the first part of the book, while wartime enthusiasm, propaganda, economy, and military strategy are discussed in the second. Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. Posted April 26, 2012 More Books, Europe, Periods, Regions, Topics, Transnational, War, All content © 2010-present NOT EVEN PAST and the authors, unless otherwise noted, Sign up to receive the monthly Not Even Past newsletter. Edition (March 3, 2000), Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2016, “Perhaps this sense that the world had arrived at the Biblical Armageddon was the most powerful of all the ‘ideas of 1914’.’’, Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2017, Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2018. Learn more about the program. Only two chapters are of interest to the general reader, namely chapters 12 ("Why Men Fought") and 13 ("The Captor's Dilemma"). For example, Ferguson argues that a militant culture, embodied by Army Leagues and immensely popular spy books, cannot even partially explain British politicians’ decision to declare war against Germany because such a culture lacked an electoral following. what would Europe have looked like if Britain had stayed out of the war?

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. He poses the question ? This would have been construed as an outdated approach – most recent scholars of empire have stopped writing books centered in the City of London – if not for the innovative mix of social and cultural history added to Ferguson’s standard economic and military analyses. Plot Keywords This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. An engrossing dense and scholarly thesis on WWI, Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2016. I would not take up this book as my first exposure on WWI history. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. It seems crazy but as someone fascinated by the First World War and having enjoyed many of Ferguson's other works I decided I would give it a second chance. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Synopsis submission guide. Using cutting-edge graphics, illustrative stories and a studio debate with leading WW1 experts, Ferguson presents the innovative argument that Britain?s decision to intervene was the biggest error of modern history. His strong belief that Germany would have guaranteed France and Belgium’s territorial integrity in exchange for British neutrality comes across as extremely optimistic, if not baseless. The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. The past is never dead. It looks like we don't have a Synopsis for this title yet. It takes alot of discipline and persistence to make it through. | After finishing the book, the reader will realize that its subtitle, “Explaining World War I,” is far more clever than it appears at first glance. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Owen’s Poetry –The Pity of War Summary The difference in Owen’s poetry was one of perspective and purpose. | Realistic Travels, “Three British soldiers in trench under fire during World War I,” 15 August 1916 (Image courtesy of The Library of Congress), McLagan & Cumming, “The tank tour. Please try again. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. Niall Ferguson's Pity of War performs much the some service for British participation in the First World War, and was, not surprisingly, greeted with nearly equal vitriol. The attainment of verbal beauty (like the romantics of … Ferguson is unambiguous in his belief that British statesmen overestimated their alliance obligations and the extent of the German threat, which led them to mistakenly intervene in and transform a regional conflict into a global war. Really more of an extended analytical essay than a history of the War, Ferguson sets out to answer a series of ten questions : There's a problem loading this menu right now. Joseph Parrott’s review of Churchill: A Biography. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and Amazon Prime. Buy national war bonds (£5 to £5000) and war savings certificates,” 1918, Scottish War Savings Committee (Image courtesy of The Library of Congress). Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Nazi Germany’s continental ambitions, though qualitatively different from Mitteleuropa, offer a hint to what France and Belgium’s fates would have been like had plans for a German-dominated and exploited Central European union been realized. This is a dense and scholarly book. Ferguson addresses ten questions in support of his thesis (p. 442). His thesis is controversial - that Britain didn't need to fear Germany and should never have entered the war. This was my second attempt at reading this book having purchased it some years earlier and giving up on it. The Pity of War (TV Movie 2014) on IMDb: Plot summary, synopsis, and more... Find industry contacts & talent representation Access in-development titles not available on IMDb Get the latest news from leading industry trades Claim Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. There was a problem loading your book clubs. This assessment colors each of the book’s chapters and leads the author to put forth many bold, unorthodox, yet startlingly fresh arguments about a topic that many of today’s historians have written off as overdone. Exhaustive detail which is no doubt interesting and important to a specialist in the field. Basic Books; Revised ed. Debunks a number of myth of the war like the German were militaristic nation(in fact the Social-Democrat party, wich was pacifist, was the biggest party in the Reichtag). The book’s most convincing arguments are those that rely on evidence of Cabinet, Parliamentary, and popular political attitudes that contradict previous scholars’ explanations for British intervention in the conflict. The Pity of War offers not quite a history of the First World War, but rather a history of Great Britain and the First World War; for Ferguson, the two are inseparable. Be the first to contribute! This is an advanced book discussing the causes and effects of WWI. Ferguson particularly argues that the conflagration was Britain's fault not Germany's. Unable to add item to List. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German