The Sleepwalkers Audiobook By Christopher Clark cover art

The Sleepwalkers

How Europe Went to War in 1914

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The Sleepwalkers

By: Christopher Clark
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
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One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History)

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 is historian Christopher Clark's riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I.

Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself, but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.

Clark traces the paths to war in a minute-by-minute, action-packed narrative that cuts between the key decision centers in Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, and Belgrade, and examines the decades of history that informed the events of 1914 and details the mutual misunderstandings and unintended signals that drove the crisis forward in a few short weeks.

Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers is a dramatic and authoritative chronicle of Europe's descent into a war that tore the world apart.

©2013 Christopher Clark (P)2019 HarperAudio Europe Military Wars & Conflicts World World War I Imperialism War Winston Churchill Russia Socialism Africa
Exceptional Scholarship • Thorough Analysis • Excellent Narration • Fresh Perspectives • Comprehensive Backstory
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This was the most eye opening and revealing book covering the events and political maneuvering of all the involved players at the start of WWI.
The narrator did a fantastic job as well.
Definitely recommend reading!

Phenomenal read!

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This is a a very good book looking at the factors leading to WWI. The chapter on the murder of Franz Ferdinand was tremendous. In other areas, the book dragged. I strongly recommend reviewing a hard copy of the book to look at maps and sometimes even to review text itself. That helped immensely.

Very good. At times dense and dry.

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History of the making of the WWI. All acted, all desired but nobody acted and nobody desired the mayhem that followed.

History - how interlinked yet random all is

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I thought it was half lead up to and half war. Good book and narration although a tease.

not ww1

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If you are not familiar with the general flow of events leading to WWI, I'd get famjlisr with that before starting this book. this is a stellar work, but VERY heavy on the details.

Great book, very challening

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Hard to add more to what has been said previously. Excellent overview of the dynamics involved and for the non-expert while maintaining high level of scholarship. First half of the book is nonlinear, looking in turn at various concepts, situations, individuals, etc. that were key in the lead up to war. Second half is a little more linear, following the crisis as it evolved, and from viewpoints of the key players. Narration was excellent, I would not change a thing in this respect.

Superb book and performance to match.

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As a former disciple of the Fischer school for some time, this has done the best job dispelling those assumptions and reinforcing the complexity, but not inevitably, of WWI

A Remarkable, Convincing Argument

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This was a highly enjoyable listen, it was incredibly informative and had some genuinely funny tidbits about the actors on the stage of pre-ww1 Europe

Incredibly detailed book

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As this analysis makes clear, all war is history. To believe that one incident is causal and blame is straightforward, while embraced by the short attention span of today's public, is no strategy for preventing war. May the Russian Ukraine war not head us down the same road with simplistic, shortsighted viewpoints.

Should be required reading

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So much to try to absorb. Clark's knowledge & understanding of the events, political conundrums, and personal contributions of so many actors & elements that brought the "great war" onto the stage of history is, for me, voluminous & staggering. Such complex & detailed history, and Clark plows through it meticulously.

How WW1 began in great detail

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