First ladies fashion choices and how they represented the styles of the times in which they lived. And then at 10 00, former nbc news anchor tom brokaw on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. Thats this Christmas Day on the cspan networks. For a complete schedule go to cspan. Org. American history tv visited the mcarthur memorial in norfolk, virginia, which was hosting a symposium marking the world war i centennial. Author Sean Mcmeekin talks about the events in 1914 that led to war, and how it might have turned out differently. He argues against the idea that an arms race between germany and britain provoked the war. Instead, he describes a series of decisions made by heads of state that had a domino effect. This is about 50 minutes. Professor Sean Mcmeekin did his ph. D. At uc berkeley and he talked at many universities before beginning at professor of history of russian and eurasian studies at bard college in new york. Among his recent boox are the russian origins of
Of i mean you could imagine a different outcome. But thats not the way it was. Hello. Ive recently completed, or read, history of world war i by john keegan. And he expressed a view i had not heard before. What he said was before austria issued its ultimatum which was very weak and crumbling even then, sent its ultimatum to serbia, he first contacted the kaiser as to whether the kaiser would support him if he invaded serbia. And the kaiser answered yes. And his view was that was the real spark that brought about world war i and, in essence, caused the allies later to blame germany for the beginnings of the war. I wonder if you have a view on that. Well, i knew john keegan actually just not because we shared a subject. And we talked about this and i think that was a very valuable way of looking at it, to tell you the truth. The only thing i would add to it is what i have been talking about today, which is if willie had been different, if the kaiser had been different, he might not have
Instead, he describes a series of decisions made by heads of state that had a domino effect. This is about 50 minutes. Professor Sean Mcmeekin did his ph. D. At uc berkeley and he talked at many universities before beginning at professor of history of russian and eurasian studies at bard college in new york. Among his recent boox are the russian origins of the First World War, july 1914, and the berlin baghdad express, the Ottoman Empire and germanys bid for world power. His research languages include russian, turkish, german, and french. His talk today is the war of 1914, an avoidable catastrophe. Thank you for that kind introduction. Well see if i can get the clicker to work before we get going. There we are. Its true, i did one book with the german bid for world power in the title. I did another book called the russian origins of the First World War. Some people have been a bit confused by this. I blame the russians in one book and the germans in the other. [laughter] now, for which
Talked at many universities before beginning at professor of history of russian and eurasian studies at bard college in new york. Among his recent boox are the russian origins of the First World War, july 1914, and the berlin baghdad express the Ottoman Empire and germanys bid for world power. His research languages include russian, turkish german and french. His talk today is the war of 1914, an avoidable catastrophe. Thank you for that kind introduction. Well see if i can get the clicker to work before we get going. There we are. Its true, i did one book with the german bid for world power in the title. I did another book called the russian origins of the First World War. Some people have been a bit confused by this. I blame the russians in one book and the germans in the other. Now, for which i can only say that im not responsible for the titles. But what ill try to do today is lay out some of where my own thinking has come from and also i think to explain a little bit of where the
An arms race between germany and britain provoked the war. Instead, he describes a series of decisions made by heads of state that had a domino effect. This is about 50 minutes. Professor Sean Mcmeekin did his ph. D. At uc berkeley and he talked at many universities before beginning at professor of history of russian and eurasian studies at bard college in new york. Among his recent books are the russian origins of the First World War, july 1914, and the berlin baghdad express, the Ottoman Empire and germanys bid for world power. His research languages include russian, turkish, german and french. His talk today is the war of 1914, an avoidable catastrophe. Thank you for that kind introduction. Well see if i can get the clicker to work before we get going. There we are. Its true, i did one book with the german bid for world power in the title. I did another book called the russian origins of the First World War. Some people have been a bit confused by this. I blame the russians in one b