After reading the recommended books section and giving it some thought, I bought The Proud Tower, by Barbara Tuchman (almost done with this one, just one chapter left) and The Sleepwalkers, by Christopher Clark.
Now, Clark's book gets nothing but praise and I'm looking forward to reading it, but I also read an equal amount of good things about The War That Ended Peace, by Margaret MacMillan (not included in the recommended list) and was convinced by the various reviewers claiming MacMillan's work and The Sleepwalkers complement each other really well.
I'd like to clarify that I'm an avid reader, these are my first history books and I want to have a clear understanding of these events. I'm from South America so I have to order my books online and they take a good amount of time to arrive. For this reason I have to plan my reading list in advance and, finally, my question is: am I good to start with the actual conflict after these three books? Is there another book that's really worth reading because it treats an aspect ignored by the rest or maybe has a really interesting and contrasting point of view?
First of all, you've already read a lot more than me on the beginning of WWI.
I'm from South America so I have to order my books online and they take a good amount of time to arrive.
Have you considered buying electronic versions of those books?
Is there another book that's really worth reading because it treats an aspect ignored by the rest or maybe has a really interesting and contrasting point of view?
A kind of dated, but very captivating narrative on the first months of the first world war is Tuchman's "Guns of August". I know there are issues with the book but I personally really enjoyed it.