I don't think I could have chosen a better place to start. In the centenary year of the start of the war I've decided to listen/read a few books about the war. What did you like most about The Guns of August? I have been listening to a series of war novels recently and found part one of Ken Follett's Century Trilogy "Fall of Giants" a moving account of World War One that was also informative about the factors that led to the start of that war but in a more digestible form. I enjoy history books but gave up on this one after a few hours. I acknowledge that many foreigners refer to the England when meaning the UK but an historian should know better. Particularly ironic, for example, when in one instance the Gordon Highlander Regiment is referred to within a few sentences. Time and time again she refers to England and the English when it should have been Britain/United Kingdom and British. This audio version is an anniversary edition 25 years after the first publication and opens with a self-congratulatory introduction by the author who also felt no changes were necessary, which I found ironic as the first sentence of the book refers to Edward the Seventh as the King of England. However, I found it too densely packed with facts, lists and characters to work well as an audio-book. This is a book of highly detailed scholarship that lays out all the factors and players that led to the start of the First World War.
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