by Tim Butcher
New York: Grove Press, 2014. Pp. xxii, 314.
Illus., maps, notes, biblio., index. $26.00 paper. ISBN: 9780802123893
Gavrilo Princip, Sarajevo, and the Shaping of the Modern Balkans
Trigger is a combination of causes and events leading up to WW1, a recap of the 1992-1995 Balkan war, and the author’s reactions as he revisits war sites from when he covered that later war. The title is overly dramatic as Austria used the assassination as an excuse to declare war. If not for this event some other excuse would have been used and Gavrilo Princip may have been the first to state that.
Trigger follows Princip from his very poor village to Sarajevo where he was to obtain a secondary education. In the process, he became radicalized and dropped out of school. He was supported by the Black Hand with weapons, marksmanship training and assistance in crossing the border into Bosnia. In Sarajevo, due to failed communications with motorcade drivers, he took advantage of a very close range opportunity to kill the Archduke and his wife Sophia. In between, the author tells us of his trek across the countryside, recounting some of the horrors of the 1992-1995 Balkan Wars; sieges, massacres, mass escape attempts.
Princip’s heritage has changed over the decades as first he was a murderer, then became a hero with his firing location immortalized in cement footprints and a tomb where his remains were reburied. Later his memory would be trashed as the Yugoslavia he wanted had failed to protect his Bosnia.
The Trigger is only secondarily a WW1 book but primarily a book about the legacy of WW1 in the Balkan region of Europe. It sheds light upon a part of the world and tragic events of which our familiarity is inadequate. That makes it worthwhile reading.
Our Reviewer: Ron Drees is an archivist, retired from processing the collection of Dr. Michael DeBakey, the world-famous cardiologist at the Baylor College of Medicine. His interest in history dates back to junior high school with an emphasis on American military history, particularly the Civil and World Wars. He has written several reviews for Michael Hanlon's blog "Roads to the Great War", about the catastrophe that still shapes the world. His favorite WWI book is Margaret MacMillan’s Paris, 1919 which tells how the tragedy was compounded by setting the stage for even greater misery. He lives in Houston with his wife of 42 years, Lin, a retired librarian, and their Sheltie, Hannah. He had a grandfather who was a teamster on the German side in WWI, his first boss had been a Marine at Iwo Jima, virtually the only survivor of his company, and his brother-in-law had been at Inchon. Ron’s previous reviews include Imperial Germany and War, 1871-1918, Beneath the Killing Fields: Exploring the Subterranean Landscapes of the Western Front, Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy, Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division during World War, The Kaiser’s U-Boat Assault on America, This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing, 1918: Winning the War, Losing the War, After the Ruins: Restoring the Countryside of Northern France After the Great War, A Mad Catastrophe, Verdun: The Lost History of the Most Important Battle of World War I, July, 1914: Countdown to War, Dreadnought, and Toward the Flame, A Memoir of World War I.
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Note: The Trigger is also available in hard cover, audio-, & e-editions.
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