I'm looking at my homeland, : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary . 621,537.58 km2, seems like a lot. But then, this is the same 676,587 km2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas Apart from software development, trading and math, I also like history. I guess I relax from the hard stuff by reading "light" stuff. Like how is it possible that =~ 600k km2 of land can start a world war.
I've finished my latest book in the Soviet series, "Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89". I may never finish "The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia", it affects me too much. So, what next? I'm looking at "Soldaten": On Amazon: "Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing and Dying: The Secret Second World War Tapes of German POWs by Sonke Neitzel (20-Jun-2013)". Other suggestions?
Any Germans around? I think Neckermann Katalog was an "avant la lettre" Amazon or Aliexpress: https://retroport.de/retro-kult-quelle-katalog/ . As a kid in the 80's Eastern Block I was waiting for a new print on that thing as I'm today looking for sales on Amazon (well, the local branch). It even was a gray area. Communist govenrnment would not approve on what I now identify as "consummerism" but tell that to consummers. So they had well known (and supervised) places called the "bazaars" where you could get the magazine and fashion ordering a latest suit (fashion was always selling best and as you look at it now, deprecates fastest). Once you remove the artificial obstacles though, it was just a free market back then as today. Have you read my story the Afghanistan rocket heads scam, they were called "neftci" or something?
one possible theory that comes to mind is that multiple agendas of shapers and movers converged to put the war on the agenda as a given in search of a trigger event.