Title: The Pity of War
Author: Niall Ferguson
Publisher: Basic Books
Pages: 563
Content: Niall Ferguson’s study of the causes of the First World War
is unique in that it places the blame for the circumstances and the extent of
the war squarely on Britain’s
shoulders. He asserts that those leaders who claimed, at the time, to be as
much victims as the soldiers at he front, in that they were gripped by forces
beyond their control; are in fact deluding themselves to the reality that it
was their conscious decisions that resulted in a conflict of a scale heretofore
never seen or experienced before. Yet, as Ferguson
goes on to review, the vast majority of the men and women who fought in the war
did so with little to no reluctance. Why that was so is also examined in this
book. This book is worthwhile due to the quality of the evaluations and the
uniqueness of the approach. It is critical that Officers and NCO’s not only
carry out their duties but think about the environment that they find
themselves in. This book causes one to pause and reflect and to view history
from a different perspective.
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