Ebook {Epub PDF} The Russian Origins of the First World War by Sean McMeekin

Sean McMeekin. The Russian Origins of the First World War. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, pp. $ (cloth), ISBN Reviewed by Lucien J. Frary Published on H-Russia (February, ) Commissioned by . McMeekin, Sean, Subject. World War, Russia; World War, Causes; World War, Campaigns Middle East; Russia Foreign relations ; World War, Campaigns Eastern Front; Imperialism History 20th century. Sean McMeekin wants to change this. The Russian Origins of the First World War is a sweeping reinterpretation of German war guilt. It posits, first and foremost, that Russia bears the onus of war. Sure, the Germans played a role, as did Serbia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain/5(39).

The catastrophe of the First World War, and the destruction, revolution, and enduring hostilities it wrought, make the issue of its origins a perennial puzzle. Since World War II, Germany has been viewed as the primary culprit. Now, in a major reinterpretation of the conflict, Sean McMeekin rejects the standard notions of the war's beginning as either a Germano-Austrian preemptive strike or a. In a similar vein, Sean McMeekin has presented us with two publications - "Berlin-Baghdad Express" and "The Russian Origins of the First World War" - in which the real epicenter of the First World War appears to be, in fact, the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. This is important for two reasons. Return to Book Review Index. The Russian Origins of the First World War, by Sean McMeekin. Cambridge, Ma.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Pp. xii, Illus., maps, notes, biblio., index. $ ISBN: In this work, Prof. McMeekin (Bilkent, Ankara) examines Russian responsibility for the outbreak of the Great War.

The catastrophe of the First World War, and the destruction, revolution, and enduring. “ Casting a contrarian eye on the first major conflict of the twentieth century, Sean McMeekin finds the roots of WWI inside Russia, whose leaders deliberately sought—for their own ends—to expand a brawl that the Germans wanted to keep local. The author tracks the fallout of these antique plots right down to the present geopolitical landscape. McMeekin’s argument that “it was Russian statesmen who unleashed the war through conscious policy decisions based on imperial ambitions in the Near East,” and that “the key to the outbreak.