The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914

Written by Christopher Clark

Narrated by Derek Perkins

The Sleepwalkers 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 he 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, The Sleepwalkers is a dramatic and authoritative chronicle of Europe's descent into a war that tore the world apart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781494576530

Christopher Clark

Christopher Clark is a professor of modern European history and a fellow of St. Catharine's College at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947, among other books.

Reviews for The Sleepwalkers

[Sandra Mian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best book I have listened lately. So actual... It seems humans are not able to learn anything from the past.

I have read comments that Mr. Clark was trying to minimize the role of Germany in WWI but I never saw this in the book. The point was that there were many responsable, not only one. But as Germany lost WWI and then we had the - again - horrors of WWII, the winners had to find a culprit. As ever. It was Europe's leaders fault, not the fault of individual countries. But those "leaders" survived while millions died or worse.

It seems to me, a Latin American, that European leaders hate peace. Western "civilization" always tries to impose its views by force. When are those so civilized peoples starting the next war?

[Jigar Shah · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The level of research, appropriate details and narrative are incredible. It is a long story but you get the sense of dysfunction, conflicting interests and internal dynamics of each of the belligerents that explain the title. And one keeps thinking of the 20 situations that could have led to avoidance of a Europe-wide war that dragged people of all their colonies for something of no concern to them.