Pulitzer Prize History Winner
The Coming of the War, 1914
by Bernadotte E. Schmitt
Summary
Schmitt reconstructs the diplomatic crisis that turned the assassination at Sarajevo into a continental war within a matter of weeks. Drawing on the published documents of the major powers, he weighs the responsibility of each government and assigns particular blame to Germany and Austria Hungary for the escalation. The two volume account became a leading English language study of the July 1914 crisis and its tangle of alliances and miscalculations.
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Historical Context & Significance
Published in 1930, this work earned Schmitt, a University of Chicago historian, the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1931.