Reading progress update: I've read 784 out of 784 pages.
I have mixed feelings about this book. Overall it's a good, readable overview of the run up to the First World War that incorporates an impressive range of factors and includes a number of excellent pen portraits of European leaders. Yet it is peppered with minor errors; more importantly, it doesn't offer anything new to its readers, just points that were culled from other, previously published materials. Perhaps if I hadn't read Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers I would have a higher opinion of this book, but Clark is an extremely hard act to follow.
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