1914: THE GREAT ILLUSION

Drawing on the most recent research, 1914 offers a synthesis of the events that preceded and followed Europe's entry into war. Through a concrete approach grounded in archival sources, Jean-Yves Le Naour reconstructs how that year was lived by contemporaries, far from ministerial or princely antechambers. He shows France plunged into a state of extreme tension, susceptible to the slightest rumour: Maggi advertising plates or Kub bouillon signs were said to have served as directional markers for the advancing German army; Russians were rumoured to have landed at Le Havre; German spies were distributing poisoned sweets; German soldiers were cutting off children's hands during the invasion, and so on... But this volume also revisits the great events of 1914, such as the Sarajevo assassination, the murder of Jean Jaurès and the Battle of the Marne. It brings to light events usually ignored by historiography: the hesitation of the government which, departing for Bordeaux, came close to declaring Paris an open city, undefended, in order to spare it from destruction in combat; the extraordinary late-night reception of the celebrated clairvoyant Mme Fraya, on 1 August, before an assembly of anguished ministers who turned to the irrational for reassurance! Or why Joffre allowed the Germans to advance through Belgium (contrary to the official version, it was known they would come that way). The author revisits the famous "Union sacrée" which proved to be no more than a dream: quarrels continued, albeit with foils blunted... On every page, the narrative is vivid and the reader can sense that singular atmosphere, fanned by the first deaths, the blunders of contemporaries, their hopes, their turmoil and their anguish. Poignant.