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Disputing Disaster:A Sextet on the Great War
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A group portrait of six of the finest historians of the First World War
In Disputing Disaster, Perry Anderson picks out from the highly charged historiography on the First World War one leading historian from each of the major powers that survived the conflagration: Fritz Fischer, famous historian of German war guilt; Pierre Renouvin, a disabled serviceman and preeminent authority on the conflict in France; Luigi Albertini, the Italian newspaper tycoon who, unique among scholars of the Great War, played a part in pitching his country into it; Paul W. Schroeder, the American expert on the system of Europe - an interstate relations and its breakdown in 1914; Keith Wilson, the one radical deviant from a patriotic consensus about Britain’s role in the outbreak of the fighting; and, from Australia (summoned into the war as a dominion), Christopher Clark, acclaimed author of The Sleepwalkers.
Disputing Disaster offers a compelling analysis of the major competing versions of the genesis of the Great War; fresh light on the political background of its leading historians; and a novel synthesis of the determining pressures that brought the conflict to pass.
Perry Anderson is emeritus in History at UCLA, and an editor at New Left Review. Recent work: Different Speeds, Same Furies, a comparative study of Anthony Powell and Marcel Proust.
Reviews
The most erudite and compelling voice on the British Marxist left ... Disputing Disaster is a book unlike any other on the 1914 debate ... a wealth of sharp and compelling reflections on how and why historians argue as they do, why they rethink, abandon or double down on their positions, and how politics and emotion flow into the writing of history and back out of it into the world.
One of the best political, historical and literary essayists of the age.
[A] provocative exploration of overlooked causes of a war that may or may not have been a historical inevitability.
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Remarkably erudite ... a book of immense learning and interest that should be read by everyone with an interest in the history of the Great War
, Sunday Telegraph -
Punchy but wide-ranging ... Anderson's treatment of the literature is characteristically deft and learned
, Financial Times -
Readers who are new to the debate will find it interesting to see how many different histories of the same event came to [be] written. Those who are already familiar with the authors discussed here will find plenty that is fresh and surprising in Anderson’s use of personal papers and archival sources in many different languages.
, Literary Review -
Perry Anderson is one of Britain’s most brilliant historians, a penetrating political analyst and a vigorous intellectual combatant. Hence, it’s no surprise that <i>Disputing Disaster</i>, his discussion of the history wars over the origins of World War I, is a lively and fascinating read.
, Arts Fuse -
Scintillant, conceptually resourceful, and idiosyncratically elegant ... a phenomenal exercise in synoptic thinking.
, New Statesman -
World War I gave rise to a heated century-long debate about its causes. In Disputing Disaster, Perry Anderson surveys this wide-ranging field and makes the case that the Great War cannot be understood without considering the role of imperialism.
, Jacobin -
A remarkable consideration of how historians understand war
, History Today, Best Books of 2024