![]() This book is not ordinary or conventional in essence, and Ferguson, perhaps true to type, even eschews the traditional narrative framework which has proven the standard for works of this genre – such is his desire to challenge the conventional ways of doing things in both form and argument. With the centenary of the First World War beginning last year, and a tranche of new work on the subject finding publication, it is perhaps pertinent to review this particularly fascinating book about how, more than one hundred years ago, the civilised world went to war and promptly set about tearing itself apart. ![]() The arguments contained within this book are still hardly accepted by the mainstream and they do not constitute a widely adopted interpretation – even now – of the course of the First World War and its causes. His energy both in composition and argument was startling to many at that time. Ferguson, though now a respected and well-known figure within the academic community with several tenured professorships to his name, was only in his early thirties when the book was first published. ![]() ![]() Much has been made by reviewers of its gleeful rejection of received wisdom, as well as the confidence and vigour with which the historian who wrote it, Niall Ferguson, puts forward his controversial case. ![]() One aspect of this book which has attracted a great deal of attention is its apparent novelty. ![]()
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