The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914

By Christopher Clark

Categories: History

Christopher Clark's account of the July Crisis of 1914 reconstructs how the leaders of Europe's great powers, through a chain of decisions, misjudgments and alliances, stumbled into the First World War. Rather than assigning sole blame to any one nation, Clark traces the Balkan roots of the conflict and the diplomacy in Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris and London that turned an assassination in Sarajevo into a continental war.

Recommended by 2 people

• David Sacks: “There's a famous history of World War One called The Sleepwalkers, because that's basically what it felt like: they just sleepwalked their way to World War One.”
• Sam Altman: “This is a really good book, and has been on my mind watching the Ukraine situation develop”