title: The Outbreak of the First World War
author:  Hew Strachan 
description: Hew Strachan is Chichele Professor of the History of War, University of Oxford.
zlib_text: M I C H A E L  H O W A R D  
  THE 
  FIRST 
  WORLD WAR 
  
  'The peoples of Europe did not 
  have to be whipped up by 
  government propaganda. 
  It was in a spirit of simple 
  patriotic duty that they joined the 
  colours and went to war.' 
  OXFORD 
  UWIVBRSLSITY P-88 
  . w o u p  w m  
  
  The European powers were ready for war ~ I I  
  1914. Germany, fuelled b? 'archaic militarism. 
  global ambitions, and neurotic insecurity'. tnok 
  the offensive, in the misguided belief that it 
  would shorten the conflict. Four years later. 
  eight million people had died in the ~r~ost 
  apocalyptic episode the world had knoan. 
  Sir Michael Howard, pre-eminent m i l i t a ~  
  historian and author of such definitive works as 
  The Fmnco-Prussinn War and War in Europrrrr, 
  Histoy, has meditated on the subject of the 
  First World War for several decades. The rest111 
  is a 'masterpiece of concision' (Hew Strachan). 
  a succinct and highly readable account of thp 
  events leading up to, and culminating in that 
  conflict. With tr