How to Understand the Origins of the First World War

The Great War created the modern world. Fourteen million combatant deaths, four empires destroyed (Hapsburg, German, Tsarist, Ottoman), the victors themselves irreparably damaged: a conflict which ended the era of relative peace and benevolence, destroyed the culture of Europe, and unleashed the twentieth century – ushering in a yet more destructive war, and giving birth to ideas that continue to shape our world today: in the arts, in psychology and medicine, in economics and society.

Norman Stone will distil a lifetime of teaching and thinking to discuss the origins and conduct of the war whose centenary falls next year: the lineups of the Entente and Central Powers, their conflicts of interest, their military preparations, their strategic thinking, their hopes of rapid victory in one campaign, their plans shattered by trench warfare, their failed offensives East and West, their protractions of a futile conflict…

Author of the definitive account of the Eastern Front between 1914 and 1917, and more recently of a short history of the First World War (2007), Norman Stone is one of Britain’s most outstanding historians. His publications include Hitler (1980), Europe Transformed (1983) and The Atlantic and Its Enemies (2010). Formerly Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford, Norman Stone is now Director of the Turkish-Russian Centre at Bilkent University. He lives in Ankara.