John Horne reviews Tim Butcher's new book on Gavrilo Princip, and so does Robert Fox.
Review of a book about Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Countess Sophie Chotek. The book is The Assassination of the Archduke.
In WWI, one of Robert Musil's second-cousins, Alois Musil (aka Sheikh Musa al-Rweili), was Austria-Hungary's version of Lawrence of Arabia, except that Alois Musil, unlike Lawrence, had a mastery of many Arabic dialects.
Quoting Colin O'Connor, 'During the First World War, [Alois] Musil was sent to the Middle East to counteract the efforts of the great English Arabist T. E. Lawrence - or Lawrence of Arabia as he is known to many.' Back in Europe, Musil had a career as a theology professor. Some of his documents have been translated into English. Here's a pdf with a bio and photos.
Chris Kelly on her Austro-Hungarian ancestors, including Count Franz Clam-Gallas.
Stefany Anne Golberg quoting from Béla Zombory-Moldován's memoir of the first eight months of WWI in a Hungarian unit:
Nature slumbered … flowed on its course, impervious to the absurd behavior of men … The whole world was manifestly indifferent in the face of the life-and-death struggles of men: it neither took their side nor opposed them, but simply paid no attention.More about this memoir, The Burning of the World: A Memoir of 1914.
Here's the first item in Spiegel Online International's WWI series.
