Amazon.com: Books: The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914:
“The diplomatic origins, so-called, of the War are only the fever chart of the patient; they do not tell us what caused the fever. To probe for underlying causes and deeper forces one must operate within the framework of a whole society and try to discover what moved the people in it.”
–Barbara W. Tuchman
I have found everything else of hers to be first-rate and this book (how have I missed it?) covers a period I am interested in anyway. But that quote — typically vivid and insightful — seems to resonate with our present circumstances. Can we hope to understand what motivates and fuels those who oppose us without understanding their world?
I have understood the First World War as the beginning of the modern world, but as with any event, there are causes and forces that drive and shape it: time to learn more about them.
We’re going to Oregon later this week with a trip to Powell’s City of Books: I’ll hunt this up while I’m there.