The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War - Hardcover

Butcher, Tim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 070118793X ISBN 13: 9780701187934

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2014

Synopsis

On a summer morning in Sarajevo a hundred years ago, a teenage assassin named Gavrilo Princip fired not just the opening shots of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history, when he killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Yet the events Princip triggered were so monumental that his own story has been largely overlooked, his role garbled and motivations misrepresented.

The Trigger puts this right, filling out as never before a figure who changed our world and whose legacy still has an impact on all of us today. Born a penniless backwoodsman, Princip’s life changed when he trekked through Bosnia and Serbia to attend school. As he ventured across fault lines of faith, nationalism and empire, so tightly clustered in the Balkans, radicalisation slowly transformed him from a frail farm boy into history’s most influential assassin.

By retracing Princip’s journey from his highland birthplace, through the mythical valleys of Bosnia to the fortress city of Belgrade and ultimately Sarajevo, Tim Butcher illuminates our understanding both of Princip and the places that shaped him. Tim uncovers details about Princip that have eluded historians for a century and draws on his own experience, as a war reporter in the Balkans in the 1990s, to face down ghosts of conflicts past and present.

The Trigger is a rich and timely work that brings to life both the moment the world first went to war and an extraordinary region with a potent hold over history.

About this title

Review

"A triumph... A marvellously absorbing book on the nature of one man’s political grievance and its terrible aftermath" (Ian Thomson Observer Books of the Year)

"The most imaginative and singular book on the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War to date... This is expeditionary journalism at its best – a historical inquest radiated through the mind and experience of an outstanding reporter" (Robert Fox Evening Standard)

"A masterpiece of historical empathy and evocation... This book is a tour de force" (Christopher Clark Guardian)

"A fascinating study of one of those rare individuals whose act of violence changed the history of the world. An incisive, shrewd, wholly compelling investigation of an assassin’s life and times" (William Boyd)

"A fabulous book that all First World War historians will now have to take account of... Superb" (Saul David)

"A splendid book. It takes its place among classics of Balkan history" (Norman Stone)

"Tim Butcher goes from strength to strength. I enjoyed every paragraph" (Dervla Murphy)

"Insightful, useful and delightfully written... A great book – one to be recommended to professional and amateur historian alike" (General Sir David Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff)

"Lucid, passionate, urgent" (Rory MacLean)

"This is first class history and in a year swamped with First World War centenary books, it’s the one you should read first" (Andrew Roberts)

Book Description

A trek through the Balkans, an exploration of the life of an assassin (the teenager who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and so triggered the First World War), and a journey into the history of this complex and fascinating part of the world...

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 070118793X
• ISBN 13: 9780701187934
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352