First published 2013
Christopher Clark examines the assassination that ignited World War I. On a June day in Sarajevo, Gavrilo Princip steps toward a stalled car and fires the shots that kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. This act of terrorism achieves its goals: it liberates Bosnia from Habsburg control and creates a powerful Serbia. But it also destroys four empires, kills millions, and ends a civilization. Clark investigates why prosperous Europe proved so vulnerable to a single assassination. He traces how European leaders failed to grasp the severity of Balkan violence and chaos. The book reveals how this misunderstanding pulled the continent into catastrophe. Clark shows that the fighting in the Balkans approached genocidal levels, yet European powers dismissed its significance. The Sleepwalkers offers readers a fresh examination of how a terrorist act in a small Balkan city triggered the most destructive war in human history.
Genres: history, 20th-century, non-fiction, military-history, world-war-i, academic
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-events
Setting: Sarajevo, Europe, Balkans
Period: 20th-century
736 pages · Hardcover · HarperCollins
Content warnings: violence