1914

The Year The World Ended

By: Paul Ham

Narrated by: Robert Meldrum

Few years can justly be said to have transformed the earth: 1914 did.

In July that year, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Britain and France were poised to plunge the world into a war that would kill or wound 37 million people, tear down the fabric of society, uproot ancient political systems and set the course for the bloodiest century in human history.

In the longer run, the events of 1914 set the world on the path toward the Russian Revolution, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Nazism and the Cold War.

In 1914: The Year the World Ended, award-winning historian Paul Ham tells the story of the outbreak of the Great War from German, British, French, Austria-Hungarian, Russian and Serbian perspectives. Along the way, he debunks several stubborn myths.

European leaders, for example, did not stumble or ‘sleepwalk' into war, as many suppose. They fully understood that a small conflict in the Balkans - the tinderbox at the heart of the continent - could spark a European war. They well knew what their weapons could do. Yet they carried on. They accepted - and, in some cases, even seemed to relish - what they saw as an inevitable clash of arms. They planned and mapped every station on the path to oblivion. These pied pipers of the apocalypse chose war in the full knowledge that millions would follow, and die, on their orders.

1914: The Year the World Ended seeks to answer the most vexing question of the 20th century: Why did European governments decide to condemn the best part of a generation of young men to the trenches and four years of slaughter, during which 8.5 million would die?

©2013 Paul Ham (P)2013 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

‘[Paul Ham’s] account is documented, detailed, rational and responsible, as well as fascinating and horrifying. It is difficult to imagine a better starting point from which to begin a serious consideration of this most challenging of historical issues.’ (Bill James, News Weekly)

How the war started

Over the past four years I have read many books on World War One. This year (2014) marks the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI and many books are coming out about WWI. I have read quite a few of them already. This book, “1914: The Year the World Ended”, is by the Australian Historian Paul Ham. The book is mostly about how the world went to war and very little about the battles. Recently a number of books by other writers have covered the same ground and done so in a much more enjoyable fashion. Ham tells the story leading up to the war from Austria-Hungarian, Russian, German, Serbian, British, French and Ottoman perspectives. The author follows the ebb and flow of diplomacy in Europe in the years leading up to The Great War. He highlights the feeling of inevitability of war going back a decade that served to cloud everyone’s judgment. He points out that 1914 was a pivotal year in human history. It led to the Russian Revolution, the cold war and was the seed that allowed Nazism and World War II to grow. It changed societies and countries around the globe. It was the beginning of the end of empires and monarchies as the world had known them. At the end of the book Ham relates briefly some of the battles but only covered one “the miracle on the Marne” in any detail. Despite some flaws the author performs an important role in attempting to distill historical work for the broader audiences. As there is a number of books out on this subject I wish Ham would have covered the role of the Australians played in World War One, I think that would have make a more unique book. Robert Meldrum did a good job narrating this 23 hour book.

Historically Detailed - ad nauseum

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

When they say this is 'unabridged', they mean it!! You get 22+ hours of details. I couldn't bear it. There's got to be a happy medium between this and a Readers Digest version of the Great War.

Would you ever listen to anything by Paul Ham again?

Yes. But would get the abridged version.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes - both a bit dull, given the content.

Was 1914 worth the listening time?

No.

One of my favorite books

I think I've read this book 3 times. It's one of the first history books I've read that really made history feel human, and relatable.

I like how the author almost humanizes nations as beings. Like the way he talks about Germany feeling inferior and that that psychology does as a motivator on the global stage. I think these types of factors matter and help explain how and why the war started.

This book helped me understand the modern world way better. I feel like it's impossible to understand the world we live in today without understanding WW1. This book made it all relatable and understandable.

keep your opinion out of it

moralizing bore. tell the history and not what you think of it won't buy him again.

Unlimited simulacreage to colonize

If you liked "The Sleepwalkers" or "The Guns of August," then...read them again?

"1914" cites both explicitly, in a text lacking any of the features that made those books interesting to read or discuss.

(Meldrum is an excellent narrator, but struggles terribly with foreign words. Bless him, he tried.)

Garbage

Big in British xenophobic obfuscation and half truths. Small in significant insight and human truths.