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dropbear123 t1_j3xrd53 wrote

Just finished A World Undone: The Story of the Great War 1914-1918 by G.J Meyer (side note - it seems to be difficult to get a cheap copy here in the UK)

>4.75/5 Very good overview of WWI. Long at 700 pages but apart from that accessible. Covers all the important political and military events. No prior knowledge needed. Has brief background chapters for things like biographies or the history of various countries prewar.

Next up and my first non-WWI related book of 2023 The Last Emperor of Mexico: A Disaster in the New World by Edward Shawcross about a Habsburg archduke who was installed as emperor of Mexico by the French in the 1860s.

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elmonoenano t1_j3yqof1 wrote

I listened to a podcast with Shawcross not long ago but when I looked at my normal podcasts for history books it wasn't one of those. I'll try to remember who did it b/c it was interesting.

It was on History Extra: https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/mexico-ill-fated-austrian-emperor-podcast-edward-shawcross/

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you_havin_a_laugh t1_j440os9 wrote

I also recently finished A World Undone. I thought it was a great single-volume history of WWI and I really appreciated the background chapters to give greater context to the whole conflict.

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MDigan21 t1_j46cpx3 wrote

I’m going to be adding this to my list! I’m about halfway through Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, which is broken up into a few sections, but it largely concerns the political, cultural, social, and military buildups in Europe among the powers (both Great and lesser) and their key decision makers in the years before the war. It sets the stage for what the landscape of Europe was like in June of 1914 when the assassination of Franz Ferdinand takes place. Then it goes into a minute-by-minute account of the July Crisis (haven’t gotten to that yet). I’m loving it so far! Very detailed accounting of events and people. A World Undone would make a great follow up I’m sure!

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