| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Method/Theory

Edward E. McCullough. How the First World War Began: The Triple Entente and the Coming of the Great War of 1914–1918. New York: Black Rose Books. 1999. Pp. xii, 346. $28.99.

Edward E. McCullough's purpose is nothing less than deconstructing the prevailing wisdom on the outbreak of World War I. He condemns the "militarist myth that wars are caused by evil people" attacking "kindly and pacific folk" (p. ix). "The promulgation of this militarist myth has been achieved by the falsification or distortion of historical fact" that is best exemplified by "the widely accepted mytholological history of the events leading to the Great War, of 1914–18" (p. ix). McCullough asserts that rational discussion of World War I was replaced by "ultra-nationalist history" as a result of World War II, in particular the belief "that the two world wars of the twentieth century have their origins in the peculiar mentality characteristic of the Germans" (ix). Indeed, he argues, "the Great War provides by far the best example of the falsification of history for propaganda purposes," and the interpretation of Germany's role "as an aggressive, expansionist disturber of the peace is completely unrelated to the actual events of the period" (p. 328). 1

McCullough's style is pugnacious: the views he criticizes are denigrated as "falsification and distortion" (p. 328), "propaganda," "manipulation" (p. 328), "pure mythology" (p. 328), "perverse mythology" (p. 330), "imaginary history written by entente myth writers" (p. 330) and by "entente myth-makers [who] apply twisted logic" (p. 332), such as the "modern entente mythologist, Paul Kennedy" (p. 213). . . .

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