3 ORIGINS AND COURSE OF
FIRST WORLD WAR
Origins
The classic account is the immensely detailed L.
Albertini, The Origins of the War of 1914(3 vols,
Oxford, 1952–7). A ‘revisionist’ debate over German
war-guilt began with F. Fischer, Griff nach der
Weltmacht(Droste, 1961), translated as Germany’s
Aims in the First World War(Chatto & Windus, 1967).
These ideas were supported and supplemented in V. R.
Berghahn’s excellent study, Germany and the Approach
of War in 1914 (Macmillan, 1973). By far the best
book on British policy is Z. Steiner, Britain and the
Origins of the First World War (Macmillan, 1977). For
the foreign policy of Austria-Hungary there is the well-
researched and sympathetic study by F. R. Bridge, From
Sadowa to Sarajevo(Routledge, 1972). A good brief
introduction is L. C. F. Turner, Origins of the First
World War (Arnold, 1970); see also J. Röhl, Delusion
or Design(Elek, 1973). For Serbian policies, see V.
Dedijer, The Road to Sarajevo(MacGibbon & Kee,
1967). For a French view, see P. Renouvin, La Crise
européenne et la Première Guerre Mondiale(4th edn,
Presses Universitaires, 1962). The outstanding account
of British relations with Germany is P. Kennedy, The rise
of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860–1914(Allen &
Unwin, 1980). The best general synthesis is J. Joll, The
Origins of the First World War (Longman, 1992). See
also Niall Ferguson, Pity of War(New York, Basic
Books, 1999).
Military
P. M. Kennedy (ed.), The War Plans of the Great Powers,
1880–1914(Allen & Unwin, 1979); C. Falls, The Great
War (Putnam, 1961). An older study still useful for the
western front is Basil Liddel Hart, History of the First
World War, first published in 1930, also in paperback
(Pan, 1972). For links between strategy and politics, see
L. L. Farrar, The Short War Illusion (Clio, 1973) and
M. Kitchen, The Silent Dictatorship(Croom Helm,
1976). For the conflict between Russia, Germany and
Austria-Hungary, see N. Stone’s stimulating assessment
in The Eastern Front(Hodder & Stoughton, 1975). See
also J. M. Bourne, Britain and the Great War, 1914–
1918 (Arnold, 1989).
General and Diplomatic
M. Ferro, The Great War 1914–18 (Routledge, 1973);
Z. A. B. Zeman, A Diplomatic History of the First World
War(Macmillan, 1971); E. R. May, The World War and
American Isolation, 1914–17 (Times Books, 1966); E.
Kedourie, England and the Middle East: The Destruction
of the Ottoman Empire, 1914–21(Harvester, 1977); V.
H. Rothwell, British War Aims and Peace Diplomacy
(Oxford, 1971); D. Stevenson, First World War and
International Politics(Oxford, 1987); B. Hunt and A.
Preston (eds), War Aims and Strategic Policy in the
Great War, 1914–18(Croom Helm, 1977); R. A. Kann,
B. K. Kiraly and P. S. Fichtner (eds), The Habsburg
Empire in World War I(Columbia, 1977); A. Marwick,
The Deluge: British Society and the First World War*
(Macmillan, 1973).4 THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, 1917
W. H. Chamberlin, The Russian Revolution, 1917–22*
(2 vols, Grosset, 1965) was written close to the events it
describes, a vivid portrait first published in 1935. See,
also A. B. Ulam, Lenin and the Bolsheviks* (Fontana,
1969); E. H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–23*
(vols, Penguin, 1950–3); S. P. Melgunov, Bolshevik
Seizure of Power* (Clio, 1972); I. Deutscher, The
Prophet Armed: Trotsky, 1879–1921* (Oxford, 1954)
and The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921–9* (Oxford,
1970). E. H. Carr’s classic fourteen-volume History of
Soviet Russiais likely to be studied only by the special-
ist; the first three volumes have already been cited under
their sub-heading, The Bolshevik Revolution; E. H. Carr
distilled the multi-volume work into one very readable
volume to serve as a general introduction, entitled The
Russian Revolution: From Lenin to Stalin, 1917–29*
(Macmillan, 1980). See also under national histories.
More recent works include E. Acton, Rethinking the
Russian Revolution(Arnold, 1990); E. Mawdsley, The
Russian Civil War* (Allen & Unwin, 1987); and, from
the doyen of American historians, R. Pipes, The Russian
Revolution, 1899–1919* (Collins Harvill, 1990).
Orlando Figes, A Peoples’ Tragedy* (Pimlico, 1997).5 PEACEMAKING AND DIPLOMACY IN
THE 1920sFor a good synthesis, see A. Sharp, The Versailles
Settlement: Peacemaking in Paris, 1919*(Macmillan,
1991). For British policy, see E. Goldstein, Winning the
Peace: British Diplomatic Strategy, Peace Planning
and the Paris Peace Conference(Cambridge, 1991). See
also S. P. Tiliman, Anglo-American Relations at the
Paris Peace Conference of 1919(Princeton, 1961); H.
Nicolson, Peacemaking, 1919(Constable, 1934); J. M.
Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace(reprint,
Macmillan, 1976); E. Mantoux, The Cartha-
ginian Peace(reprint, Arno, 1978); J. M. Blum,
Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality(Little,
Brown, 1956); A. S. Link, Wilson the Diplomatist*
(Johns Hopkins, 1957). For a brief general survey, see
G. Schulz, Revolutions and Peace Treaties, 1917–20*
(Methuen, 1972). Also of value are H. I. Nelson, Land
and Power: British and Allied Policy on Germany’s
Frontiers, 1916–19*(David & Charles, 1971); and A.
Mayer, Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking: