Examination of Fergusons book in which the
author examines the events leading up to the outbreak of the First World
War and
the factors which caused that
war. It explains how this is a work of revisionist history inasmuch as Ferguson dismisses as inadequate or misleading previous attempts by historians and others to explain the origins of the war and offers his own formulation of the causes thereof. Its great strength is the comprehensive manner in which the
author deals with the interrelationships among the diplomatic, military, political, economic and social developments of the period and his insights into the internal dynamics in various nations which helped bring on the war. The paper discusses how the author's overall conclusions are, however, poorly supported. They involve leaps in logic and in some cases retrospective speculation, including the questionable use of counter factual scenarios which sometimes border on fantasy, and assumptions which display his own peculiar set of biases.