First World War

  • “’Some damned foolish thing in the Balkans,” Bismarck predicted would ignite the next war. The assassination of the Austrian heir apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian nationalists on June 28, 1914, satisfied his condition.’” So wrote Barbara W. Tuchman in her book The Guns of August. On 28 July, one month later, Austria-Hungry declared war

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  • 11 November has traditionally been a day of reflection for me. This is the day I pause to remember the end of the First World War, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Three classical music pieces express my sentiments about this day: Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod”

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