All for you, Franz? From the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Total War

On June 28, 1914 the heir to the Habsburg throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie were murdered in Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist. However gruesome this event may have been, it was not unique. The king and queen of Serbia and the king of Italy had been murdered about a decade before, and the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Russia had been assassinated even more recently. Why, then, did this assassination trigger war, and how did this war come to merit a new concept, that of “total war”? Drawing upon historical research, newspaper reports, and artwork from the Spencer's collection, Nathaniel Wood, Associate Professor of History explores these difficult questions. This lecture and the reception immediately following is the first in a series of events organized by the European Studies Program to commemorate the World War I centennial. Works of art from World War I may be viewed before and after the lecture in the 20/21 Conversation Space.