On December 2, Ashford’s picks for best books were featured in the War on the Rocks Christmas Reading List.
On Christopher Clark’s, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914: “This classic 2012 book is perhaps the best history book I’ve ever read. It combines large-scale historical trends with the minutiae of diplomatic history: what the key actors across the European continent were thinking, saying, and doing in the run-up to the Great War. The characters and actions trip off the page in ways curiously reminiscent of today’s interconnected world. More importantly, they remind us of the ways in which even the best intentions in foreign policy can easily go awry.”
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