Family Feud

This week, I finished reading George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to War, by Miranda Carter. (This is the book that was the one that had all appearance of being utterly dull). It was amazing. Book review over.

Alright, fine. I'll go a bit more in depth. I'm not going to go into the details of WWI and history and such, but I do want to give the impressions this book left, that you don't get if you just read the tragically uninsightful history books of K-12. So, if you don't know much about the world at the time, you are going to have to do some background reading.

What really stood out was how dysfunctional the royalty of Europe was during the mid-1800's to the time of WWI. This book is less a look at the historical facts and more a look at the mentalities, the motivations that drove George, Nicholas, Wilhelm, Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and others. Honestly, if anyone needed Dr. Phil, or Nanny 911, it was the royal family, which was pretty much everyone royal at the time, because they literally were a family. Imagine that family reunion!!! And, based on this book, the family reunions of these guys could trump just about any family reunion you've ever been to. And they make an excellent example of why politics should NOT be discussed at family get-togethers. Really, though, it was fascinating to read about these people as a family first, and government leaders second. And to see how their family relationships impacted politics and affected the entire world.

Another thing that stood out to me was how utterly pointless WWI was. Honestly, it was just someone really anxious to blow things up and shoot guns and prove that they were king of the mountain. There was no other reason for it. It wasn't about anything other than egos. It was about empire, and being the biggest world power. Which, sadly, in some ways hasn't changed much.

As I read, I found it much more difficult to sympathize with Wilhelm, but as I reflect, he probably deserves the most pity. Socially inept, all he wanted was acceptance and respect, but everything he did resulted in exactly the opposite. And yet, because of his lack of social graces, it's very hard to sympathize with him. As things progress, I felt more frustration with Nicholas, as well, and yet, pity, also. He was a good man placed in the wrong place. But the story of Russia before the revolution that overthrew Nicholas gave a lot of insight into the history of Russia after Nicholas, and even up to the present day.

In the end, all you get is a sense of tragedy. There are so many what-ifs. Of course, none of those have guarantees, and there were so many factors at play, but still. Had even one of the many major decisions been made differently, the world could have followed a completely different course.

Anyway, it really was a terrific book, and despite how huge it looked, was far less daunting than it appeared.

Now, a little bonus today, if you would like to call it that. I read an article this week that really gave some excellent perspective to the gun issue. I have read several articles that have reframed the discussion for me. I decided that I would share this one: Living with guns the Swiss way. I think this brings up a lot of relevant points for reading informational literature, which may be the topic next time. But, I hope the article is as insightful for you as it was for me.