‘Europe’s Last Summer’: Just finished Boston University professor David Fromkin’s new book, ‘Europe’s Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914?’ ... Fromkin asks the simple question: Why did the war start in 1914, and not 1912 or 1917? etc. The recent historic consensus about WWI is that a chain-reaction of unstoppable events, linked to an ill-conceived web of alliances, caused the war. Fromkin, using new historical data largely uncovered by German historians, begs to differ. Complex alliances didn’t lead to outbreak of war after the Napoleonic wars or during the Cold War. The difference in WWI, Fromkin notes, is that one side wanted war: Germany and Austria-Hungry. ... Fromkin doesn’t argue that Willhelm Germany was Nazi Germany, that the Kaiser was Hitler, that the causes of WWI were as stark as the causes for WWII. But he does argue, and convincingly so, that Germany’s elite always thought in terms of war and sought the showdown in 1914. ... General von Moltke, head of the Prussian general staff, comes across as a truly creepy character. ... Verdict: A fast-read, crisply written book. Two thumbs up. ... FYI: Fromkin is also the author of the much praised ‘A Peace to End All Peace.’  ¶ 11:51 AM