Безумље и злоба: Хабзбуршко царство, Балкан и почетак Првог светског рата

by John Zametica, Milan Đurić (Translator)

Ово је бриљантна историографска студија о једном од кључних аспеката избијања Првог светског рата. Још од Дедијеровог Пута у Сарајево 1967. нисмо видели књигу о овом питању упоредиве снаге и ауторитета.
(Професор сер Хју Строн)

Ова књига, која се чита са великим апетитом... јасно показује, на основу свеукупног расположивог материјала, да Србија није желела рат 1914.
(Професор Алан Скед)

Прецизним истраживањем аутор доказује, мимо сваке разумне сумње, да злогласна српска терористичка група звана Црна рука није планирала атентат, као и да српска влада није у њега била уплетена... Његов живописан опис атентата од 28. јуна најбољи је који имамо.
(Професор Марк Корнвол)

Монументално дело које приморава читаоца да дубље размишља о питањима која су сматрали решеним... моћно аргументивана студија чије ће закључке историчари пажљиво проучавати још много година.
(Професор Вернон Богданор)

Ретке су књиге које из темеља мењају устаљене слике и претпоставке о преломним догађајима из прошлости, тезе које су током времена добиле статус непорецивих „истина“. Ово је једна таква књига. Она представља обавезно штиво не само за припаднике „струке“ већ и за образованог лаика коме је стало да разуме како и зашто је Европа кренула путем самоуништења у лето 1914. године – и која је била стварна улога Србије у том драматичном расплету.
(Професор др Срђа Трифковић)

Genres: History, World War I, Nonfiction

948 pages, Hardcover

First published June 23, 2017

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is an enormous canon of writing about the origins of the First World War and this new massive work by John Zametica will be an important contribution. Put simply, its central contention is that it is to Austria-Hungary that one should look to see why the assassination of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo led to the start of the war. The book analyses in great detail the twists and turns of Austrian policy from the latter part of the nineteenth century. From this, Zametica concludes that "the real powder keg of Europe..was the continued existence of an increasingly panic-stricken and yet assertive Habsburg Monarchy."

In unpacking this contention, Zametica very thoroughly discusses various policy interventions and along the way, severely criticises historians who have sought to attribute responsibility for the calamity on other states such as Serbia and Russia (Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers comes in for particular negative criticism).

The book continues the most detailed account of the assassination at Sarajevo that one could possibly envisage - almost minute-by-minute, car by car - and attributes blame for letting this happen on to the pride and incompetence of Governor Oskar Potiorek.

It is important to recognise that the focus of the book is on Austria's role and not on the great power alliances that developed the conflict into the global conflict. Nonetheless, Zametica, through a formidable use of source material, makes a most compelling case for Austria culpability.

This is big book and needs a lot of concentration. I read it over several weeks - with a long break - but leave it impressed with the information that is uncovered and the power of the argument that is made.

[Marko Gasic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Folly and Malice has been reviewed in glowing terms in mainstream and academic publications such as The Historian (journal of the Historical Association), Times Literary Supplement, Hungarian Studies Review and the RIIA's International Affairs. Reviewers were invariably leading historians and the book received huge praise, including from the world-famous Prof. Sir Hew Strachan, Prof. Sir Vernon Bogdanor, Prof. Alan Sked, Prof. Paul Miller-Melamed. It has also been positively referenced by other leading historians including the late Prof. John Rohl; also by Prof. Holger Afflerbach in his book and at an international conference in Vienna where he placed the book in the same category as the works of Albertini, Fischer and Clark. At Goldsmiths College, Prof. A. Watson has put it on the reading list and it is cited extensively on Wikepedia. It looks great to me!

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

(I don't often write reviews of books I haven't read but this book intrigued and then disturbed me so I have written the following 'review').

I have searched everywhere for a review of this book in a mainstream publication or an academic journal and found none. I also haven't found evidence of this work being referenced by other historians. This makes me very uneasy because, why I don't doubt that the author has done a vast amount of research in archives in many different countries, that doesn't unfortunately guarantee anything (while I have no intention of comparing John Zametica to David Irving it is worth remembering that Irving was once taken seriously because of his apparently exhaustive archival research). A good historian should read languages and consult archives, but that isn't everything. I have seen this book praised on amazon and GR for bringing attention back onto Austria-Hungary and Imperial Germany in causing WWI but Zametica is not the first to do this. I don't know, because I can't get hold of a copy from the library and have no intention of buying a copy (much as all of us would like to buy every book we want it isn't possible, at least for me) but it appears Mr. Zametica is interested in demolishing older explanations for the outbreak of WWI, and this can result in a work propaganda rather then history.

A great deal of what the author 'reveals' is not new, for example:

"...he documents that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian Heir to the Throne, was anything but a "federalist", modern-minded reformer of the multi-national Hapsburg Empire; that the people who killed the Archduke in Sarajevo were not proponents of the "Great Serbia" project, but supported a "Yugoslav" ideology which they shared with the young Croat intelligentsia; and that the secret "Black Hand" officers' organization in Serbia, far from organizing the assassination in Sarajevo, had in fact tried to prevent it."

None of these statements are new or surprising, all can be found in histories of WWI and Austria-Hungary, even recent biographies of Franz Ferdinand, even popular histories. That some at some point in time may have said these things is neither here-nor-there and demolishing the mistakes, errors, or distortions of older historians does not justify reading or buying this door stopper of a book.

All the, few, reviewers who have bought the book praise it for its wealth of scholarship, but few discuss in any detail this 'scholarship' or what the author is saying. Again I can't help pointing to David Irving who always used 'archives' but shamelessly manipulated them. I don't say Mr. Zametica is doing that but I do think he is fighting old battles and demolishing phantom dragons. I think this 700 page monster of a book has overwhelmed the GR reviewers who are struggling to convince themselves that they haven't wasted their money so none of them are willing to even think they may have been sold a dud.