Philipp Blom's central thesis is that the years 1900-1914 tend to be overlooked by historians analysing twentieth century history due to the dramatic events that followed, however he asserts that everything that followed has it genesis in these years. He makes a good argument too. Like our own era, the era was characterised by an incredible rate of technological change, profound social upheaval, etc. and Blom's book has given me a good insight into life during the early years of the twentieth century.  

There's a chapter for each year beginning in 1900 and ending in 1914 and each year is introduced by a significant person or event. Each chapter works as a stand alone article and I jumped around a bit when I read the book.  

The book places an emphasis on social and cultural history, and covers a wide range of topics e.g. modernism, women's suffrage, philosophy, Freud, telecommunications, neurasthenia, the Dreyfus affair, the growth of cities, etc. and convincingly demonstrates how the social and cultural changes often associated with the aftermath of WW1 would probably have all happened anyway.  

The final chapter is called “1914: A political murder” however it's not about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, it's about Henrietta Caillaux, the wife of the French finance minister, who killed the editor-in-chief of Le Figaro. The background of the crime is a tale that Blom could not have invented any better, a sleazy affair and an aggressive media campaign against the minister, combined to create the dramatic crime. The French public lapped the story up, meanwhile the shot in Sarajevo, fired at the same time, was hardly noticed.

The book packs a lot in and is well worth reading for anyone interested in the era, or indeed twentieth century history.

The Vertigo Years is a thematic exploration of the world before the Great War.  The events of each year of the period inspires the contemplation of a different theme.

 

1900: France

1901: Europe's aristocrats in their twilight of greatness

1902: Austria-Hungary and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis

1903: science, particularly physics

1904: the Europeans in Africa, particularly the Belgians in the Congo

1905: Russia

1906: Europe's militaries

1907: the Bohemian fringe: pacifists, nudists, Madame Blavatsky and friends

1908: the "women with stones" - the Suffragettes

1909: machines and speed

1910: the arts

1911: popular culture

1912: eugenics

1913: crime and insanity

1914: summation on the world that was "run over by a bus," to quote the late historian George Dangerfield

 

It's probably not the first book on the period I'd hand someone who didn't know much about the era, due to its thematic nature - but it might be the second.

Not so much this-and-then-than happened, as an attempt to get at the zeitgeist. I don't know enough to say whether its a good attempt, but it was certainly an interesting read. Culture, politics, morals, women, technology, health, race, art and a very great deal of sex. The world was moving too fast, capitalism was destroying identity, the right sort of people were having too few children and everyone else was having too many, the traditions of earlier ages were being shattered, technology was changing the nature of society and no one knew what to do about it, sex wasn't what it was supposed to be, morality was in crisis, women were too manly and men weren't manly enough, etc, etc. Conservatives keep being afraid of the same things, in an endless unprogressing loop, it seems.