re: #29 HappyWarrior

By the way, I have been meaning to mention this book on World War 1 to you:

Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War
Max Hastings

It talks about how the various European countries got into the war, and the first 5 months of fighting. And, if you didn’t already guess. Going to war means that a lot has failed. Spectacularly. As documented in this book

While it seemed to me more academic than the above book, a second book that might interest you is:

The End of Tsarist Russia
Dominic Lieven

He talks about a lot of things Russian, such as the tensions in Ukraine between the pro-Austro-Hungarian elements and the pro-Russian element. I found this quote on World War 1 quite interesting:

“To a degree seldom recognized in English language works, this conflict had much to do with the future of the Ukrainian people, roughly three quarters of whom were Russian subjects in 1914, the remainder living in the Hapsburg monarchy. For some of Russia’s most perceptive and influential observers in 1914, this source of Austro-Russian conflict was much more important than anything that happened in the Balkans.”