The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914

Published in 2012, Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers offers a sweeping account of the political miscalculations, diplomatic rivalries and national ambitions that brought Europe into the First World War. Beginning with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914, Clark traces the interlocking decisions made in Vienna, Berlin, St Petersburg, Paris, London and Belgrade. Rather than assigning responsibility to a single nation, he reconstructs the perspectives and calculations of the statesmen whose actions transformed a regional crisis into a continental catastrophe. The result is a history in which individual judgement, institutional weakness and international uncertainty become inseparable.

Meticulously researched yet remarkably alive to human character, The Sleepwalkers challenges conventional accounts of the origins of the Great War. Clark examines how competing alliances, imperial anxieties and political ambitions created a situation in which leaders repeatedly misread one another and their own circumstances. One of the most influential modern histories of the First World War, the book offers an illuminating reconsideration of Europe's descent into modern conflict.

From the book

“The outbreak of war was the culmination of a chain of decisions.” — Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers

On The Sleepwalkers

“A massive, wide-ranging chronicle.” — Kirkus Reviews