A friend of a friend has sent me a recommendation for the book "Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War", by Gerry Docherty and James MacGregor (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hidden-History-Secret-Origins-First/dp/1780576307).
I'm not a historian, so I was wondering if the book is in any way credible? It sets of all of my conspiracy theory alarm bells. I've pasted the description below:
"The authors are not professional historians but are retired (GP + head teacher) WW1 researchers. They produce evidence that WW1 was planned and engineered by a powerful clandestine cabal within the British establishment more than a decade in advance. Originating with a group founded by Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Milner in 1891 (both men were responsible for starting the Boer War) pledged to defend and extend the British Empire, the plan to destroy Germany as a threat to British (and then subsequently Anglo-American) supremacy was hatched under the Balfour/Salisbury administrations and continued under the Liberal government of 1905. Parliament and most of the cabinet were deceived. The Entente with France and Russia contained secret military agreements committing the parties to action in the event of an attack. The British army was reorganised and Belgium was involved in the detailed planning. Edward VII was the architect of the Triple Entente. Invasion and German spy scares appeared regularly in novels and the press (the best of the novels, Riddle of the Sands was written by Erskine Childers, the elite's agent inside the Irish Republican movement) - the contrived panic brought the Official Secrets Act and the predecessors of the modern. intelligence services. Provocations were organised to try to trigger a conflagration (Annexation of Bosnia by Austria in 1908, the Agadir incident 1911, Balkan wars in 1912 & 13) culminating in the Sarajevo assassination in 1914 - all were directed from London using foreign diplomats whose loyalty was bought and other 'useful idiots'. Lloyd George, the great radical until about 1909, was co-opted and corrupted by this secret elite. The state pension was a much reduced thing partly because of the massive naval expenditure. Fascinating stuff and another volume to come."
After reading the first chapter or so, I noticed that it's clearly taking a lot of inspiration from Carroll Quigley, in that his work seems to be the basis for their main arguments. That's not necessarily bad, but Quigley's Tragedy and Hope is a common source for all sorts of conspiracy theories, ones which Quigley himself disagreed with.
The other big red flag that stood out to me is that the first chapter alone is veering into Rothschild conspiracy territory. That's not very heartening. I have no idea if the rest of the book continues in that direction, but what I read wasn't encouraging and seemed like just another variant on "international bankers" conspiracy theories.
Here's a great site explaining the process. I was a history major though and I'd say the best way to tell is to look at the sources they listed and see if they're using them in the correct context http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/howdoi/scholarly.html