Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914: The Outbreak of the Great War

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Winner of the 2015 Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Book Prize Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914 is the first history of the Great War to address in-depth the crucial events of 1914 as they played out on the Balkan Front. James Lyon demonstrates how blame for the wars outbreak can be placed squarely on Austria-Hungarys expansionist plans and internal political tensions, Serbian nationalism, South Slav aspirations, the unresolved Eastern Question, and a political assassination sponsored by renegade elements within Serbias security services. In doing so, he portrays the background and events of the Sarajevo Assassination and the subsequent military campaigns and diplomacy on the Balkan Front during 1914. The book details the first battle of the First World War, the first Allied victory and the massive military humiliations Austria-Hungary suffered at the hands of tiny Serbia, while discussing the oversized strategic role Serbia played for the Allies during 1914. Lyon challenges existing historiography that contends the Habsburg Army was ill-prepared for war and shows that the Dual Monarchy was in fact superior in manpower and technology to the Serbian Army, thus laying blame on Austria-Hungarys military leadership rather than on its state of readiness. Based on archival sources from Belgrade, Sarajevo and Vienna and using never-before-seen material to discuss secret negotiations between Turkey and Belgrade to carve up Albania, Serbias desertion epidemic, its near-surrender to Austria-Hungary in November 1914, and how Serbia became the first belligerent to openly proclaim its war aims, Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914 enriches our understanding of the outbreak of the war and Serbias role in modern Europe. It is of great importance to students and scholars of the history of the First World War as well as military, diplomatic and modern European history.

Reviews

A century on, Serbia and the Balkan Front stands alongside Glenn E. Torrey's research on Romania as a vital and long-overdue contribution to the conflict's historical reassessment. * European History Quarterly *
None will cover the Serbian campaigns of 1914 in as much detail as Serbia and the Balkan Front. * British Journal for Military History *
In the flood of historical literature brought to market for the centenary of the First World War, this book stands as a unique and significant contribution. In contrast to most other histories of the war, which either ignore the Balkan front altogether or else base their accounts of it on German-language sources reflecting the sensibilities of Serbias opponents, Lyons work is grounded in extensive research in Serbian archives. He provides perhaps the most accurate assessment yet published in the English language of the mentality and actions of Serbias leaders in 1914, as they alternately rode and reined in the passions of Serbian nationalism in the wake of their countrys spectacular successes in the Balkan Wars. * Lawrence Sondhaus, Professor of History, University of Indianapolis, USA *
This well-written, thoroughly researched and vivid account juxtaposes the heroism of common soldiers on both sides with the disconcerting mix of knaves, fools and fanatics who sent them all to hell in 1914. It also underscores the catastrophic failure of Habsburg generalship to preserve the great society with which it had been entrusted. * Charles Ingrao, Professor of History, Purdue University, USA *

Author Bio

James Lyon is an Associate Researcher at the University of Graz, Austria. He has a PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles, USA and has published extensively on the history of the Balkans. He founded the Foundation for the Preservation of Historical Heritage, which is working to digitalize rare document collections in leading Balkan cultural institutions.