New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2: Who Began the War, and Why?

This is a remarkable historical artifact: a New York Times contemporaneous publication from March 1915, attempting to answer the question that would define the war's legacy. Who began it, and why? The text captures the major powers in their own words, reproducing the speeches, declarations, and diplomatic communications each nation used to justify its actions. Kaiser Wilhelm II explains Germany's position. Austria-Hungary presents its case against Serbia. The Allies respond. What emerges is not simple propaganda but a fascinating window into how the war's architects understood and articulated their own choices. The document includes formal declarations, diplomatic correspondence, and analytical pieces representing the full range of national perspectives. This is primary source history in its most literal form, written while the war was still being fought, before the full catastrophe could be known. For anyone seeking to understand how World War I began not from later historical revision but from the moment itself, this collection offers invaluable witness.