THE LOST HISTORY OF 1914

In The Lost History of 1914, Jack Beatty offers a highly original view of World War I, testing against fresh evidence the long-dominant assuption that it was unavoidable.

Jack Beatty, an Atlantic Monthly editor and historian, reinterprets World War I with a focus on the belligerent countries and key leaders who shared the global stage in 1914. The familiar ones Nicholas II, Rasputin, Kaiser Wilhelm, Franz Ferdinand, Raymond Poincaré, the young First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, the old Emperor of Austria Francis Joseph share the stage with unexpected figures like Pancho Villa and John Reed, and Herbert Hoover, "1914's hero for unambiguous good." Each chapter focuses on a key event in one country of that epochal year. The last three chapters, set in November and December, record the transformation of the war, of the countries we saw in peace, and of their leaders. Ahead of its 100th anniversary these chapters distill the essence of what George F. Kennan called "the great seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century."

Jack Beatty is a news analyst for On Point, the public affairs protram on National Public Radio, and the author of The Rascal King, Colossus, and The Age of Betrayal.