#2: Historiography of the July Crisis

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Zack Twamley

19th Century, 20th Century, International Relations, Politics, Thirty Years' War, Korean War, 18th Century, First World War, Phd, 17th Century, European History, History, War

4.8 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do historians explain the outbreak of the First World War, and how have these views changed over the last century? Were they influenced by new perspectives, new motives, or new source materials? How have they influenced our current understanding of the war's origins, and what impact have they had on the 'mainstream' view of why war broke out? In this episode we go on a journey through the historical record, where new theories and explanations emerged, in the teeth of contentious debate.

For some, the pursuit of truth was a matter of justice - finding significance in the loss. For others, it was a political necessity, to rehabilitate their nation. For others still, it was a mere matter of historical study - the need to find the truth, and be the first person to do so. Whatever the motives - whatever the results - the story behind how historians reached their conclusions, and how these conclusions changed, represents one of the most fascinating and important aspects of the First World War's origins story, and I can't wait to share it with you!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Imagine sweeping through green fields, floating five feet above ground, sun on your face as you slide by on track to your destination, not a care in the world as you simply lean back, and before you know it, you're there.
0:16.7	Travel by train from London to Liverpool from just 25 pounds.
0:21.9	Avanti West Coast.
0:23.2	Feel good travel.
0:25.4	Exclusions and limitations apply.
0:28.0	Full terms and conditions can be founded to avantiwestcoastcoast.com. UK forward slash plan.
0:32.0	In summer 1914, the world went to war.
0:37.0	Now 110 years later, we go back to those figures, to those debates, to those questions, in the greatest failure in the history of diplomacy. I am Dr. Zach Twomley. You're listening to When Diplomacy Fails, and this is the July crisis. historians can never attain perfect or total knowledge of the whole truth.
1:35.2	All they can do is establish probabilities, sometimes overwhelming, sometimes less so,
1:40.6	sometimes hardly at all, about parts of the past, those parts that can be accessed
1:45.4	by means of the remains that is handed down in one form or another from posterity.
1:51.8	Richard J. Evans, 2003.
1:58.1	Why did the First World War happen?
2:01.4	Who was responsible?
2:02.8	How did the contemporaries of 1914 become involved in the bloodiest, most devastating conflict Europe had then ever seen?
2:11.4	The why, the who, and the how?
2:14.2	Our questions historians have grappled with since the guns fell silent,
2:18.7	and in some cases, even before that.
2:21.9	It has proved arguably the most enduring historical question, if not in history, then certainly
2:27.9	in 20th century history, and with that history comes the historiography, the record of historical debates and perspectives,
2:37.0	which were altered by new caches of evidence, explosive new interpretations,
2:42.1	or a mixture of both in equal measure.
	...

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