Jihad-cum-Zionism-Leninism: Overthrowing the World, German-Style Sean McMeekin Historically Speaking, Volume 12, Number 3, June 2011, pp. 2-5 (Article) Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.1353/hsp.2011.0046 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/hsp/summary/v012/12.3.mcmeekin.html Access Provided by Bilkent Universitesi at 11/26/12 5:31PM GMT 2 Historically Speaking • June 2011 JIHAD-CUM-ZIONISM-LENINISM: ISTORICALLY PEAKING H S OVERTHROWING THE WORLD, June 2011 Vol. XII No. 3 GERMAN-STYLE CONTENTS Jihad-cum-Zionism-Leninism: 2 Sean McMeekin Overthrowing the World, German-Style Sean McMeekin Is “Right Turn” the Wrong Frame for 6 American History after the 1960s? t is often said that the First World War David T. Courtwright marks a watershed in modern history. From the mobilization of armies of un- The Politics of Religion in 8 I fathomable size—more than 60 million men put Modern America: A Review Essay on uniforms between 1914 and 1918—to the no Aaron L. Haberman less mind-boggling human cost of the conflict, Military History at the Operational Level: 10 both at the front and beyond it (estimated mili- An Interview with Robert M. Citino tary and civilian deaths were nearly equal, at Conducted by Donald A. Yerxa some 8 million each), the war of 1914 broke all historical precedent in the scale of its devasta- The Birth of Classical Europe: 13 An Interview with Simon Price and Peter tion. Ruling houses that had endured for cen- Thonemann turies—the Romanov, Habsburg, and Conducted by Donald A. Yerxa Ottoman—shook, tottered, and fell, unleashing yet more misery as these precariously assembled Historical Thinking at the K-12 multiethnic empires were wracked by in- Level in the 21st Century: ternecine warfare. As the war of 1914 spread be- A Roundtable yond Europe into the Balkans and Middle East, The Historian as Translator: 15 racial and religious score-settling and reprisals Historical Thinking, the Rosetta led inevitably to large-scale ethnic cleansing, Stone of History Education with millions of civilians uprooted from their Fritz Fischer ancestral homes, which most would never see Making Historical Thinking a 17 again. Even the victorious Western powers, Natural Act France and Britain, suffered a collapse in cul- Bruce Lesh tural confidence that arguably has never been re- From Albert Bushnell Hart, ed., Harper’s Pictorial Library of the paired. After centuries of progress had brought World War, Volume 2 (Harper and Brothers, 1920). Considering the Hidden 20 the West to a position of unparalleled domina- Challenges of Teaching and tion of global affairs, it took only four years for Learning World History sist in unleashing the dogs of war from their equally the whole glittering edifice of European civilization to Robert B. Bain panic-stricken (and equally pessimistic) Austrian al- fall apart. lies.3 “The Music Is Nothing If the 22 If 1914-18 marked an epitaph for Old Europe, This sort of moderate academic consensus is Audience Is Deaf”: Moving Historical we may usefully ask: Was it murder or suicide? Popu- Thinking into the Wider World usually welcomed. Now that so few historians have a lar historians have usually leaned toward the latter ver- Linda K. Salvucci real personal or patriotic stake in the controversy (as dict, viewing the catastrophe of 1914 as a tragedy of many Germans with memories of both world wars Galileo Then and Now: 25 miscalculation, the idea being that no European still did in the 1960s), scholars working in the field A Review Essay statesmen were truly guilty of intending the war, at least today are spared the bitter acrimony of the Fritz Fis- William R. Shea not the horrendous global war of attrition that it cher years. Even on the level of practical politics, with turned into.1 Since the Fritz Fischer debate of the Tocqueville in America: 28 the centennial approaching, there is now a sense of 1960s professional historians have generally favored An Interview with Leo Damrosch “goodbye to all that”—literally, as the last German Conducted by Randall J. Stephens the former explanation, explaining the war’s outbreak reparations payment was finally processed in 2010!4 in terms of German and/or Austrian premeditation, Much as there is to recommend the current con- God and the Atlantic: An Interview 30 coming down with a verdict of, if not outright homi- with Thomas Albert Howard sensus on the war of 1914, however, there is also cide, then at least civilizational manslaughter. The Conducted by Donald A. Yerxa much not to like. The first problem with any consen- German decision for war in 1914, Holger Herwig sus is that it is static, and unlikely to inspire new schol- Ruptures in History 32 writes in a recent scholarly collection on the conflict, arship. Say what one might about the nastiness of the Bruce Mazlish was not quite Fischer’s aggressive and deliberate “bid Fischer debate: precisely because of its sharp edge it for world power” but rather “a nervous, indeed pan- The Army and Politics in 35 stimulated years of fresh research and passionate ar- icked ‘leap into the dark’ to secure the Reich’s posi- Ancient Egypt gument. A young historian today, by contrast, is not tion of semihegemony on the Continent.”2 In the new Toby Wilkinson likely to be encouraged to tackle perhaps the biggest “consensus” interpretation, Berlin still bears primary question of modern history (responsibility for the responsibility, no longer for premeditated imperial ag- First World War and its consequences) after reading gression in the sense implied by the Versailles Treaty Cover image: “Simple solution of the Panama labor,” Puck, the kind of works published in recent years, which October 18, 1905. Library of Congress, Prints and Photo- and by Fischer, but for an impulsive preemptive strike tend to declare the matter closed to further discus- graphs Division [reproduction number, LC-DIG-ppmsca- to ward off incipient strategic decline, with further 26000]. sion. mitigation in that the Germans received a strong as- The second problem grows directly out of the June 2011 • Historically Speaking 3 first. Scholarly consensus, because it implicitly de- German side, Bethmann Hollweg and especially nies the possibility of argument, tends toward a cer- Moltke have been harshly judged, to be sure— Historically Speaking tain smugness. As David Fromkin answers his own Fromkin even fingers the chief of the German gen- The Bulletin of the Historical Society question in Europe’s Last Summer: Who Started the eral staff as the “modest, unexceptional, and indeed Great War in 1914? (Knopf, 2004), “Briefly and rather ordinary career army officer [who] started the Senior Editors: Joseph S. Lucas and Donald A. Yerxa roughly stated, the answer is that the government Great War.”10 And yet there is mitigation even in this Editor & Designer: Randall J. Stephens of Austria-Hungary started its local war with Ser- judgment: Fromkin cites as evidence of guilt Associate Editor: Scott Hovey bia, while Germany’s military leaders started the Moltke’s later “confession” to having started the Contributing Editors: Joseph Amato, Eric Arnesen, worldwide war against France and Russia that be- war, which suggests a man wracked by moral doubts Andrew Bacevich, Jeremy Black, Fritz Fischer, Thomas J. Fleming, Colin S. Gray, Adam Hochschild, George came known as the First World War or the Great more than an unrepentant war criminal. This is Huppert, Mary Beth Immediata, Mark Killenbeck, War.” Alright, then. What else is there to say? characteristic of what we might call the post-Fis- Bruce Kuklick, Pauline Maier, George Marsden, Bruce Mazlish, Wilfred McClay, William H. McNeill, Allan To be sure, there is wig- cher view of 1914, in which Megill, Joseph Miller, Peter Paret, Linda Salvucci, gle room inside the current the German “crime” was not William R. Shea, Dennis Showalter, Barry Strauss, consensus. Some historians one of conscious aggressive William Stueck, Jr., Carol Thomas, Derek Wilson, John Wilson, John Womack, Bertram Wyatt-Brown focus their fire on the Aus- Could the war really intention, but more a tragic trian statesmen who deliber- decision born of a mixture of © 2011 by The Historical Society. All rights reserved. All texts © The Historical Society unless otherwise ately hounded Serbia into have been about fear and foreboding. noted. No portion of Historically Speaking may be repro- war, others more on the pol- Nuanced as it is, there duced by any process or technique without the formal nothing more than consent of the publisher. Direct all permissions re- icy makers in Berlin who still seems something odd quests to www.press.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/permissions.cgi urged them on.5 Others, like about this sort of bloodless a German officer Historically Speaking (ISSN 1941-4188) is published five Niall Ferguson, accept pri- explanation of the outbreak times a year for The Historical Society by The Johns mary Austro-German re- and his complexes? of the bloodiest war in his- Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Balti- sponsibility but still have tory (until its sequel arrived in more, MD 21218-4363 harsh words for Britain, 1939). Could the war really Postmaster: Send address changes to Historically Speak- which, alone among the five have been about nothing ing, 656 Beacon St., Mezzanine, Boston, MA 02215 main powers, was aloof enough from the two main more than a German officer and his complexes? Or, Correspondence: Please write the Editors, Historically Speaking, 656 Beacon St., Mezzanine, Boston,