Trevor T

Happy Birthday to @alexchurchill.bsky.social, whose book RING OF FIRE is a must-read for anyone interested in the First World War! 👇

Just going to leave this here and hope you’ll forgive the fact that @pikegrey1418.bsky.social and I are are very excited (thanks to @wsj.com) at our new best seller tag…

Not just the Western Front: "Ring of Fire" rediscovers WWI’s global story Historians Alexandra Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst reexamine the pivotal conflict from a grassroots perspective.

When @pikegrey1418.bsky.social and I sat down with @bigthink.com to talk all things 1914…

bigthink.com/books/ring-o...

Trench Talk - Uniforms of the Great War with Taff Gillingham. Our latest podcast is out next Sunday #WW1 #FWW

Ring of Fire: A New History of the World at War: 1914 Over the last century, WWI’s impact and scale has been oversimplified and underestimated. Historian Alexandra Churchill and archivist Nicolai Eberholst strive to rebalance common conceptions of WWI.

We’ve teased a lot - now it’s official. @pikegrey1418.bsky.social and I are going to be guests of the National World War I museum in Kansas City on 23rd August. For all Americans who want to come out to play, more info:

www.theworldwar.org/events/ring-...

@pegasusbooks.bsky.social

Highly recommend Chris’ Substack. His posts are always enjoyable and this one especially so. Do please give him a follow.

Just a couple of places left for tomorrow night's talk on the first few weeks of WW1 from a new global perspective. It's going to be a goodun, message if you would like a seat. Only £5 on the door.

Just a reminder about our 5th birthday event in August - details of how to sign up for one of these trips on the photo below!

Went to Chatham dockyard yesterday and can highly recommend it. The 30 minute tour of HMS Ocelot was fantastic but the highlight was the collection of old RNLI boats.

4.5" quick firing gun, the main armament of some Royal Navy destroyers in #WW2 such as the C-class HMS Cavalier currently serving as the Destroyer memorial in Chatham Dockyard

Now you mention it Roger…🤣

Hope your move goes smoothly Beth.

Love this film but Spielberg is so right. The music made it.

So sorry for your loss Alex

A fantastic photo of an Austro-Hungarian cavalry patrol in the move in Galicia, 1914.

If you want to know more about this fascinating period of the war, @alexchurchill.bsky.social and I have a book suggestion for you 😉

Another favorite of mine: An Austro-Hungarian soldier descent into the "city of ice" underneath the Marmolata/Marmolada glacier, 1916.

The latest edition of Salient Points has arrived from @thegreatwargroup.bsky.social full of great articles as always. Why not come and join this great group of people? I promise, You won't be disappointed

The New Jersey Man eater U-boat or shark?

This week’s feature article is something slightly different in that it is loosely connected to U-boats…

In the summer of 1916 a death off New Jersey is blamed on German submarines but is there something more deadly in the waters?

jerijerod14.substack.com/p/the-new-je...

#history #ww1 #sharks

News report from The Star-Progress (Opelousas, LA) 8 Nov 1919, p. 1: FORMER EMPEROR'S COUNSELLOR SAYS PIGS CAUSED GREAT WAR Lowly Animals Must Bear the Blame of Having Been Primarily to Blame for Bringing on the World the Greatest Blood-letting in Entire Long History of the Human Race—Will Everybody Agree? Buchs, Switzerland, Nov. 5.--Pigs, just the ordinary barnyard variety, brought on the great war. This is the latest contribution from the roy-al houses of the Central Empires submitted for historical reference as the cause of the big conflict. It is put forth seriously by no less a personage than Count Carl Seilern, late confedential counsellor to Emp-eror Charles in Vienna. In a statement to Lieutenant Fred erick H. Mead, of Troy, N. Y., a member of the American convoy bringing relief supplies to pest, the count explained how plain, ordinary porkers, the kind of which the packers use everything but the squeal, were the casus belli. "Fifteen years before the war Ser-bia was shipping great numbers of pigs into Hungary, successfully com-peting with the Hungarian farmers and cutting into his income," said Count Seilern. "The Hungarians pro- tested, but the border was left open. Finally, heeding the pleas of its peo-ple, the Austro-Hungarian govern-ment acted and on the pretext that all Serbian pigs were diseased, placed an embargo on them. "Up to that time the two govern-ments had more or less of a friandly understanding. After this both sides became irritated and practiced every method of hampering each other in international trade. Political leaders in Serbia seized upon the pig inci-Buda-dent. Austro-Hungarian diplomats took up the question. Misunder-standings arose over it. The embargo was manipulated until the pig inci-dent supplemented many other poli-tical questions. When it grew too old for political propaganda, other questions were built out of it, and thus the world war was brought on. "Yes, there is no doubt that pigs caused the war."

There's definitely some kind of lesson here:
'FORMER EMPEROR'S COUNSELLOR SAYS PIGS CAUSED GREAT WAR Lowly Animals Must Bear the Blame of Having Been Primarily to Blame for Bringing on the World the Greatest Blood-letting in Entire Long History of the Human Race—Will Everybody Agree?'

Launch and Conference from @Goslingpress for the book Leading the Immortals: So if you’re at a loose end on Saturday this is an opportunity to hear the Turkish story of Gallipoli. In Leeds on 7th June. 3 lectures from and a copy of the book for only £28 trybooking.com/uk/EMXI

The cover of the book "Ring of Fire: a new global history of the outbreak of the first world war" by Alex Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst. The cover shows a map of Europe overlaid with images of WWI combatants from different nations.

Finished this the other day, and can't recommend it highly enough. A brilliant job by @alexchurchill.bsky.social and @pikegrey1418.bsky.social - global in scope but with an incredible eye for detail, and bringing in so many different voices that aren't normally heard when it comes to WWI coverage

Thoughts after reading the stupendous Ring of Fire from @alexchurchill.bsky.social & @pikegrey1418.bsky.social - one of the few popular histories of WW1 that cuts the sentiment & shows just how appalling and brutal 1914 is. I never wholly swallowed the Larkinesque innocence bollox anyway… 1/

The book "Ring of Fire" by Alex Churchill and Nicolai Eberholst. The cover depicts a map of Europe with cartoon figures on it representing the armies of the countries depicted

I'm reading the excellent 'Ring of Fire' by @alexchurchill.bsky.social and @pikegrey1418.bsky.social

One aspect is the racism of the imperial powers in 1914. It is shocking - for example, that in 1914 the Italian military had to refute the idea that black men did not feel pain

1/n

Not-staged combat photo from the First World War. The photo shows Austro-Hungarian soldiers of Inf. Regt. Nr. 14, during its attack from Oserdów on 28 August 1914. While successful, the regiment suffered nearly 400 casualties while charging across open ground.

@alexchurchill.bsky.social

In the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Kotor/Cattaro, the armoured cruiser SMS Kaiser Karl VI is under fire from Montenegrin artillery batteries on Mount Lovćen, August 1914.

The Montenegrin army was small, but in places like this, they could still be a major threat.

@alexchurchill.bsky.social

It's the moment you've all been waiting for....

THE LAUNCH CONFERENCE FOR OUTLINE PUBLISHING
18.30-21.30 on Friday, 4 July 2025
At the East Finchley Constitutional Club, 9 The Walks, London, N2 8DE
1/4

Can highly recommend’Ring of Fire’ by @alexchurchill.bsky.social and @pikegrey1418.bsky.social

They did a heck of a lot of research and it shows. A great account of the early days of WW1 by those it impacted upon.

GOLD BEACH | Istoria Travel Join us for this long weekend as Stephen Fisher guides you through the story of Gold Beach, from Mulberry Harbours, to the Royal Marines at Port-en-Bessin, to 50th Division and the advance on Crepon.

Our Walking Gold Beach tour for 2026, featuring the supreme nerdiness of @seaspitfires.com is now on general sale. Be quick though; it’s 75% sold out already!

www.istoriatravel.org/gold

One thing that never occurred to me before writing Ring of Fire - when men were mobilised in 1914, there was no one left to collect the rubbish in Paris. The city began to stink. Here’s one journalist’s account: 'Strolling through the main streets of my neighbourhood, I realize that some public services are completely disorganized by the mobilization which deprives them of any manpower. Refuse, foul smelling, sits on the edge of the pavement, abandoned? In the August heat, the smell was nauseating. Then he saw a lorry with four men on it. The driver was a teenager, two others were well over forty. They appeared to be collecting rubbish, and so Delecraz asked the boy if they might swing past his street. ""Address yourself to the colonel," he replied, pointing out to me a man in an English cap walking alongside. I walk forward to meet him. "Are you the colonel, sir?" I examine him on the sly. Tall, straight, slim. The elderly man had a pronounced regal bearing, and an imperious white moustache: I am indeed a retired colonel... I have two officer sons. Too old to return to the fire, at the age of seventy, I'm trying to be useful. You see, I am running temporary rubbish collec-tion, while waiting for the business to be reorganized. You have to serve as best you can, at such a time...' And when he opens his jacket to take a note [of my street]... I see the rosette of an officer of the Légion d'Honneur. Photo from Musée Albert Kahn

One thing that never occurred to me before writing Ring of Fire - when men were mobilised in 1914, there was no one left to collect the rubbish in Paris. The city began to stink. Here’s one journalist’s account:

FULL FEATURE: Prince John, Loved, Not ‘Lost’ Some years ago a film aired on television called ‘The Lost Prince.’ Even Ridley Scott would have been more minded with accuracy.

It’s feature time, where I take a deeper dive into a story. Today, read all about why the notion that George V and Queen Mary were terrible parents is absolute junk, and how their youngest son was not an outcast, but adored…

achurchill.substack.com/p/full-featu...

@lucyworsley.bsky.social