Tristram Shandy’s Reviews > Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War > Status Update

This is the best ww1 book in my opinion

Hm, I am on the fence with regard to this book: It is certainly too long because of all the background information and the short biographies the author throws in, biographies which due to their brevity fail to give a nuanced idea of the person concerned. I also have the impression that the book is biased in favour of England, depicting the German Kaiser as a buffoon. And, last not least, I hold it with Niall Ferguson, who says that the naval race is generally over-estimated as a factor that started the war. Massie himself lets out that by 1912/13, Tirpitz had actually given up the naval race, seeing that he no longer could overtake the English. - There is a lot of interesting information in the book and it reads very fluently, but in the past few months, I had the feeling of having a millstone tied to my neck.

But the good thing is that every reader is different.

Ah, I meant mostly from a 'literary' perspective: it is a more "cinematic" read than other WW1 books.

I like Ferguson's book too - the 'blame' for WW1 (from my perspective) lies:
a) with France and its grievance complex over 1870 and the ill-thought-out 'alliance' with Russia - also harboured long-term expansionist goals over wanting to annex the Rhineland
b) Britain's intransigence vis. German success (the naval race is probably overplayed but Germany's rising economic star (it almost single-handedly carried out the second industrial revolution in chemicals, optics, electricity etc.) absolutely set off alarm bells in Westminster who sought to maintain the 'balance of power' in Europe).

Whilst German high command was largely rational (and pro-British bias in WW1 historiography is absolutely rampant: I suspect this is due to WW2 moralism viz. Nazi Germany being back-projected on its past: "Sonderweg"), the Kaiser I think does come out looking quite bad (a bit incompetent).

I'm surprised that you disagree with Massie's characterisation of him, do you have an alternate source / perspective on his behaviour "realpolitik" over the years?

The book is definitely a literary pleasure, e.g. when Massie summmarizes some of the preceding crises or when he lets us witness the diplomacy of the Haldane mission.

For me, there are two blank cheques on the eve of the Great War, the German one and the French one, going to Russia. Like you, I see the French seething under the humiliation of 1871, not so much the socialists as the bourgeois. I can recommend Sean McMeekin's Juli 1914 as a book that goes into much of that.

As to books on Wilhelm II., there is, of course, Christopher Clark's biography on the Kaiser. There is also a book which has not been translated into English. It's by Eberhard Straub: Kaiser Wilhelm II. in der Politik seiner Zeit. Die Erfindung des Reiches aus dem Geist der Moderne. Straub defines Wilhelm as the first media Kaiser.

Thanks for the recommendations. You seem to have read all there is to read on WW1!