This attempt to assign guilt has obstructed understanding because prejudice has polluted reason. Some 25,000 books and articles have been written on the subject, most of them seeking the elusive truth of culpability. The outbreak of World War I is one of history’s most complex problems. Isolationism arose from the assumption that corrupt Europe could be ignored. As Christopher Clark argues, “The protagonists of 1914 were sleepwalkers, watchful but unseeing, haunted by dreams, yet blind to the reality of the horror they were about to bring into the world.” This perception of Europe as a place of danger convinced Americans that they should remain neutral in 1939, even though their interests were genuinely threatened. Less directly, both books also touch upon the perception of Europe that World War I inspired. Both “The Sleepwalkers” and “Those Angry Days ” show how conceptions of national interest eventually led a people to war, convincing them that carnage is justified. This issue of interests nicely links two new books on the origins of the world wars. When troops were eventually mobilized, their purpose was to defend America, not to rescue Europe. In both conflicts, the United States remained technically neutral for more than two years because Americans were reluctant to admit that their interests were threatened.
In truth, nations seldom go to war for purely altruistic reasons. Americans are fond of asserting that they saved Europe from tyranny in two world wars.
0 kommentar(er)
