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Misfire: The Sarajevo Assassination and the Winding Road to World War I
A new interpretation of the Sarajevo assassination and the origins of World War I that places focus on the Balkans and the prewar period.
The story has so often been told: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, was shot dead on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. Thirty days later, the Archduke's uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia, producing the chain
reaction of European powers entering the First World War.
In Misfire, Paul Miller-Melamed narrates the history of the Sarajevo assassination and the origins of World War I from the perspective of the Balkans. Rather than focusing on the bang of assassin Gavrilo Princip's gun or reinforcing the mythology that has arisen around this act, Miller-Melamed
embeds the incident in the longer-term conditions of the Balkans that gave rise to the political murder. He thus illuminates the centrality of the Bosnian Crisis and the Balkan Wars of the early twentieth century to European power politics, while explaining how Serbs, Bosnians, and Habsburg leaders
negotiated their positions in an increasingly dangerous geopolitical environment. Despite the absence of evidence tying official Serbia to the assassination conspiracy, Miller-Melamed shows how it spiraled into a diplomatic crisis that European statesmen proved unable to resolve peacefully.
Contrasting the vast disproportionality between a single deadly act and an act of war that would leave ten million dead, Misfire contends that the real causes for the world war lie in "civilized" Europe rather than the endlessly discussed political murder.
The story has so often been told: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, was shot dead on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. Thirty days later, the Archduke's uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia, producing the chain
reaction of European powers entering the First World War.
In Misfire, Paul Miller-Melamed narrates the history of the Sarajevo assassination and the origins of World War I from the perspective of the Balkans. Rather than focusing on the bang of assassin Gavrilo Princip's gun or reinforcing the mythology that has arisen around this act, Miller-Melamed
embeds the incident in the longer-term conditions of the Balkans that gave rise to the political murder. He thus illuminates the centrality of the Bosnian Crisis and the Balkan Wars of the early twentieth century to European power politics, while explaining how Serbs, Bosnians, and Habsburg leaders
negotiated their positions in an increasingly dangerous geopolitical environment. Despite the absence of evidence tying official Serbia to the assassination conspiracy, Miller-Melamed shows how it spiraled into a diplomatic crisis that European statesmen proved unable to resolve peacefully.
Contrasting the vast disproportionality between a single deadly act and an act of war that would leave ten million dead, Misfire contends that the real causes for the world war lie in "civilized" Europe rather than the endlessly discussed political murder.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published June 23, 2022
7 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 29, 2023
A rich and interesting history of the assassination.
Miller-Melamed takes a critical look at many myths, conspiracy theories and popular stories about the assassination, and questions as to whether it made the Great War inevitable. He also takes a broad look at the story, moving beyond the assassins to examine Serbian-Habsburg relations, Russian ambitions in the Balkans, and the political context of the decisions that led to war. He ably brings to life the worlds of the Habsburgs heirs and their assassins.
The book doesn’t seem particularly original, though. Miller-Melamed does look at the deeper issues that contributed to war, but generations of historians have done the same. Some readers may be overwhelmed by the Byzantine politics of the Balkans in that era. The author also tries to link the plot to internal Serbian coup plotting involving Dragutin Dimitrijević, but doesn’t explain how this fits with his attempts to call off the assassination plot in June. Elsewhere he writes that the Habsburgs had little appetite for a war with Serbia before the assassination, though it did mobilize its forces in 1912-1913 (Franz Ferdinand himself was pushing for military action then)
Still, a solid and well-researched work.
Miller-Melamed takes a critical look at many myths, conspiracy theories and popular stories about the assassination, and questions as to whether it made the Great War inevitable. He also takes a broad look at the story, moving beyond the assassins to examine Serbian-Habsburg relations, Russian ambitions in the Balkans, and the political context of the decisions that led to war. He ably brings to life the worlds of the Habsburgs heirs and their assassins.
The book doesn’t seem particularly original, though. Miller-Melamed does look at the deeper issues that contributed to war, but generations of historians have done the same. Some readers may be overwhelmed by the Byzantine politics of the Balkans in that era. The author also tries to link the plot to internal Serbian coup plotting involving Dragutin Dimitrijević, but doesn’t explain how this fits with his attempts to call off the assassination plot in June. Elsewhere he writes that the Habsburgs had little appetite for a war with Serbia before the assassination, though it did mobilize its forces in 1912-1913 (Franz Ferdinand himself was pushing for military action then)
Still, a solid and well-researched work.
March 10, 2022
Paul Miller-Melamed offers a new examination of what is often described as the twenty-first century's most infamous assassination in Sarajevo. However, his account is firmly aligned with A. J. P. Taylor's assessment that the majority of what was written about the killing of Franz Ferdinand was rubbish created with the explicit purpose of either discovering or confirming some grand conspiracy.
Misfire confirms the almost banality of the assassination, from its haphazard plotting to the slow-walking toward crisis by European powers. He also offers a relatively detailed (if short) examination of the strange parallels that could be drawn between the lives of the Austrian archduke and his Serbian assassin. This is a must-read if you want a new, more current prequel to Tuchman's grand The Guns of August or are simply interested in dispensing with the all too numerous fictions and distortions of some accounts, from Princip's sandwich to the belief that there was some vast Austrian plot to see off their own apparent imperial successor.
Misfire confirms the almost banality of the assassination, from its haphazard plotting to the slow-walking toward crisis by European powers. He also offers a relatively detailed (if short) examination of the strange parallels that could be drawn between the lives of the Austrian archduke and his Serbian assassin. This is a must-read if you want a new, more current prequel to Tuchman's grand The Guns of August or are simply interested in dispensing with the all too numerous fictions and distortions of some accounts, from Princip's sandwich to the belief that there was some vast Austrian plot to see off their own apparent imperial successor.
October 27, 2024
Myths, lazy research and orientalist assumptions are dealt with. Not many archival sources but a careful narration of a much-studied episode put it in its rightful place. "The penniless assassin inadvertently set off an international crisis, but it was a prosperous group of powerful statesmen who lit the illustrious powder keg." (p. 11).
September 1, 2023
It is sometimes said that "there is a reason for everything" and for a world changing event as impactful and far-reaching as the First World War then the quest for a root cause takes on a particular urgency. Whilst the expansive histography on this topic has coalesced around political and diplomatic failures in the context of inter-state rivalries and alliances, the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip is invariably cited as 'the spark that lit the fire'. In this authoritative and meticulously researched book, renowned Balkan expert Paul Miller-Melamed argues that the death of the Archduke has been overly romanticised and that the mythology surrounding the plot has served to detract from a more considered understanding of why tensions in the Balkans escalated into a conflict which claimed approximately forty million lives.
Much of the book is concerned with the emerging tensions between an increasingly irrelevant Hapsburg empire and Serbia's self-interested overreach. The author explores the historical background leaving the reader with the impression that myriad flashpoints during the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth had the potential to ignite a large-scale conflict. For those who are not familiar with the twists and turns of Balkan politics, the first few chapters are heavy going. However, ample reward comes in the fifth chapter (pithily entitled 'World History is Horrific from Up Close') where, with the context in mind, the assassination plot is described in a richness of detail. Assumptions, often made, about the duplicity of the Serbian government and the influence of German millenarianism are successfully challenged.
This narration of the story of the Sarajevo assassination and the origins of the First World War from a Balkan perspective brings a fresh perspective on to a topic which continues to excite much debate. Clearly, the annexation of the Balkan provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Austrian Hungary in 1908, and the resultant resentment felt by Serbia and Russia, did stoke international rivalries. However, the sporadic outbreaks of violent dissent which occurred during the ensuing years (including the Archduke's assassination) were not, in themselves, the cause of the First World War. As the author says in his introduction the real causes lie in "civilized" Europe rather than the endlessly political murder. Maybe Thomas Hobbes was right in prompting the idea that civilization is a thin veneer hiding an otherwise brutish and selfish nature. This base instinct is writ large in the horrors of the First World War and the failures in 1914 must surely be attributed to the European diplomatic and political class - and not to the actions of a desperate and frustrated youth on a street corner in Sarajevo.
Much of the book is concerned with the emerging tensions between an increasingly irrelevant Hapsburg empire and Serbia's self-interested overreach. The author explores the historical background leaving the reader with the impression that myriad flashpoints during the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth had the potential to ignite a large-scale conflict. For those who are not familiar with the twists and turns of Balkan politics, the first few chapters are heavy going. However, ample reward comes in the fifth chapter (pithily entitled 'World History is Horrific from Up Close') where, with the context in mind, the assassination plot is described in a richness of detail. Assumptions, often made, about the duplicity of the Serbian government and the influence of German millenarianism are successfully challenged.
This narration of the story of the Sarajevo assassination and the origins of the First World War from a Balkan perspective brings a fresh perspective on to a topic which continues to excite much debate. Clearly, the annexation of the Balkan provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Austrian Hungary in 1908, and the resultant resentment felt by Serbia and Russia, did stoke international rivalries. However, the sporadic outbreaks of violent dissent which occurred during the ensuing years (including the Archduke's assassination) were not, in themselves, the cause of the First World War. As the author says in his introduction the real causes lie in "civilized" Europe rather than the endlessly political murder. Maybe Thomas Hobbes was right in prompting the idea that civilization is a thin veneer hiding an otherwise brutish and selfish nature. This base instinct is writ large in the horrors of the First World War and the failures in 1914 must surely be attributed to the European diplomatic and political class - and not to the actions of a desperate and frustrated youth on a street corner in Sarajevo.
March 7, 2024
DNF. The author seems invested in grinding a personal axe with narrow-minded historiography, spending far too much time arguing that Gavrilo Princip’s assassination of Franz Ferdinand somehow shouldn’t be seen as an epoch-making event simply because it didn’t make waves at the time.
He also tries to argue that the assassination is insignificant because “European leaders caused the Great War” - yes, and the assassination gave them the pretext to do so! It doesn’t matter what MIGHT have been; it matters what WAS. Maybe I missed the point of what the author was trying to say but this entire book seemed like a smug exercise in discussion arguendo. Painful to read.
He also tries to argue that the assassination is insignificant because “European leaders caused the Great War” - yes, and the assassination gave them the pretext to do so! It doesn’t matter what MIGHT have been; it matters what WAS. Maybe I missed the point of what the author was trying to say but this entire book seemed like a smug exercise in discussion arguendo. Painful to read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews