The Assassination of the Archduke Quotes

“the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral,”
― Greg King, The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World

“harsh childhood of conflicting influences left the kaiser a bellicose braggart whose abrasive personality concealed a passionate craving for acceptance.”
― Greg King, The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World

“Today it is easy to look back upon the years before 1914 with a kind of gauzy, romantic nostalgia. It seems a simpler time, when innovation enthralled and peace predominated. The truth, though, was somewhat different. All major powers had fought in at least one war since 1860, usually several, and the modern arms race had begun in earnest; incursion, revolution, revolt, and repression were rife. The fifty years preceding that golden summer of 1914 witnessed constant violence. Assassination was common: The sultan of Turkey was killed in 1876; American President James Garfield and Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1881; President Sadi Carnot of France in 1894; the shah of Persia in 1896; the prime minister of Spain in 1897; the empress of Austria in 1898; King Umberto of Italy in 1900; American President William McKinley in 1901; King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia in 1903; Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia in 1905; King Carlos of Portugal and his son Crown Prince Luis Felipe in 1908; Russian prime minister Peter Stolypin in 1911; and King George of Greece in 1913.”
― Greg King, The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Romance That Changed the World