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Lead book review

What caused the first world war?

Diplomatic meltdown, says Margaret MacMillan in 'The War that Ended Peace'

12 October 2013

9:00 AM

12 October 2013

9:00 AM

The War that Ended Peace:How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War Margaret MacMillan

Profile Books, pp.656, £25

The centenary of August 1914 is still almost a year away, but the tsunami of first-world-war books has already begun. The government tells us that 1914 must be commemorated, not celebrated, and ministers worry about British triumphalism upsetting the Germans. But the debate about Germany’s responsibility for the outbreak of war in 1914 won’t go away.

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